No need for ECB to start stimulating growth, Patsalides says

The European Central Bank should keep cutting interest rates by small increments and there is no need to ease policy to a level that starts stimulating economic growth, Cypriot policymaker Christodoulos Patsalides has said.

The ECB has been easing policy for much of this year and the debate is now about how fast and how far it should cut rates as inflation worries have largely evaporated and growth remains anemic.

"I personally prefer small adjustments in a gradual process as opposed to bigger interest rate cuts," Patsalides told Reuters.

"Given the elevated level of uncertainty in both directions, we need to be vigilant and careful," Patsalides, one of the newest members of the ECB's Governing Council, said. "We also don't want to surprise the markets and give the wrong signals."

Some policymakers, mostly from the 20-nation currency bloc's south, argued...