Austria's Holzmann calls for fundamental ECB policy change

The European Central Bank should rethink its expansionary monetary policy, and inflation target, Austrian National Bank Governor Robert Holzmann told German business daily Handelsblatt in remarks published on Wednesday.

“I am fundamentally questioning the paradigm”, Holzmann was quoted as saying. “I plead for a review to determine whether the current position is right.” 

He added that the chances were high that under the leadership by designated ECB President Christine Lagarde, the central bank’s inflation target - of a rate below, but close to 2% - could be modified.

“A revision of the 2 percent target will happen,” he told the paper, saying that in the euro zone’s current economic environment, making massive efforts to drive up chronically low inflation rates, was questionable.