The central bank had "left the door ajar" in case events took a turn for the worse for the eurozone, which is highly dependent on Russian gas and other raw materials.

If we now fall into a deep recession due to the Ukraine crisis, we'll have to rethink that.

Otherwise, we'll end the bond purchases in the third quarter and as soon as we've done that we can raise rates at any time depending on how inflation develops.

Estonian central bank governor Madis Mueller, another hawk on the ECB's policy-making Governing Council, said in a Politico interview the ECB would only extend its Asset Purchase Programme if there was 'a dramatic shift' in the inflation outlook.