The European Central Bank (ECB) Vice President Vitor Constancio said in an interview with CNBC that markets misunderstood the central bank's action.

"We have to recognize that the markets got it wrong in forming their expectations. They did indeed have higher expectations than were there and that's why they reacted like they reacted but that was not our intention," he said.

The euro jumped after yesterday's interest rate decision by the ECB, while stock markets dropped. Market participants were disappointed because they hoped for more stimulus measures by the ECB. The ECB kept its interest rate unchanged at 0.05% on Thursday, but lowered its deposit rate to -0.3% from -0.2%. The asset-buying programme will be extended until the end of March 2017. The volume of the monthly purchases remained unchanged.