European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said in opinion piece in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on Sunday that the central bank was acting to fulfil its price stability mandate.

He noted that inflation would rise only gradually.

Coeure defended the ECB's quantitative easing.

"People are not just savers - they are also employees, taxpayers and borrowers, as such benefiting from the low level of interest rates," he said.