The European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Philip Lane said in an interview with the Irish Times that the ECB could add further stimulus measures if needed to reach the 2% inflation target.

"It's important to say that no door has been closed. If the data flow over the next number of months is that more needs to be done, more can be done," he said.

Lane noted that there is the uncertainty in the global economy.

"There's an unusually high amount of uncertainty at the moment," he noted.

The ECB kept its interest rate unchanged at 0.05% in December, but lowered its deposit rate to -0.3% from -0.2%. The asset-buying programme will be extended until the end of March 2017. Earlier, the asset buying programme was intended to run until September 2016. The volume of the monthly purchases remained unchanged.