Draghi says ECB must be ‘persistent’ with monetary policy in face of weak inflation

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Saturday said policy makers have to take a long view on monetary policy as they prepare to decide the fate of the bank’s asset-purchase program.

‘It’s going to take time. We have got to be persistent with our monetary policy,” Draghi said on the sidelines of the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Draghi gave an upbeat outlook on the 19-nation eurozone economy, but said inflation remains too weak, possibly due to subpar wage growth, he said. The ECB’s program of buying 60 billion euros ($70.9 billion) of bonds a month is set to expire in December. Policy makers are expected at a meeting on Oct. 26 to announce plans to begin scaling down the monthly purchases next year, but Draghi suggested the decision could be delayed again, the report said.

The euro

EURUSD, -0.0930%

 initially weakened against the dollar on Friday after a Bloomberg report said policy makers were considering cutting the size of the asset purchases in half in January—a smaller-than-expected reduction.

See: Bonds rally, euro weakens amid ECB taper talk: What’s going on?