Following are comments by ECB President Mario Draghi at a press conference after the bank left interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting.
WHEN SHOULD GREECE LIFT CAPITAL CONTROLS
"It's hard to predict ... it is clearly in the interests of the Greek economy to have these capital controls last as little as possible ... but we have to be doing this in the way that we don't have the opposite risk that we were about to have before ... namely a bank run ... the capital controls have protected the depositors ... the idea is to move as fast as we can but also with a huge degree of caution."
DEBT RELIEF FOR GREECE
"It's uncontroversial that debt relief is necessary. The question is what is the best framework for debt relief."
EURO ZONE NOT PERFECT
"This union is imperfect and, being imperfect, it doesn't deliver all the benefits it could if it were to be completed."
SIZE OF ELA INCREASE
"Several positive things have happened that justify us on the increase in ELA that we approved today. Incidentally, I didn't say by how much. We substantially accommodated the request put forward by the Bank of Greece, recalibrated over one week, so the increase would be EUR900 million over one week."
RAISING ELA FOR GREEK BANKS
"Things have changed now. We had a series of news with the approval of the bridge financing package, with the votes, various votes in various parliaments, which have now restored the conditions for a raise in ELA."
ASSUMES GREEK MEMBERSHIP OF EURO ZONE
"The ECB has acted within its mandate and will continue to do so under the assumption that Greece will remain a member of the euro area ... responsibility both of the Greek government and of the member states ... so the ECB continues to act on the assumption that Greece is and will ... remain a member of the euro area."
OIL PRICE DROP
"The recent decline in oil prices should provide additional support for households' real disposable income and corporate profitability and therefore private consumption and investment."
READY TO ACT
"If any factors were to lead to an unwarranted tightening of monetary policy, or if the outlook for price stability were to materially change, the Governing Council will respond, would respond to such a situation by using all the instruments available within its mandate."
INFLATION EXPECTATIONS
"The ECB's monetary policy stance remains accommodative and market-based inflation expectations have balanced, stabilized or recovered further since our meeting in early June."
RECOVERY INTACT
"Recent developments in financial markets, which partly reflect greater uncertainty, have not changed the Governing Council's assessment of a broadening of the euro area's economic recovery and a gradual increase in inflation rates over the coming years."
ASSET-BUYING
"Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, the asset purchase programmes continue to proceed smoothly."
"As explained on previous occasions, our monthly asset purchases of EUR60 billion are intended to run until the end of September 2016 and in any case until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation that is consistent with our aim of achieving inflation rates below but close to 2 percent over the medium term."
(EMEA MPG Desk +44 207 542 4111)
