ECB coming close to 2% inflation target: Official

The European Central Bank (ECB) will keep doing all that is necessary to complete its nearly accomplished mission on inflation, one of its top policymakers, ECB Governing Council member and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, said today.

Speaking at a conference in Milan, Nagel said that bringing euro zone inflation to the 2% target was the best thing the central bank could do to promote economic growth.

"I guess this year we are coming close to our target, 2% on average, that is more or less mission accomplished," the German central banker said, adding that the ECB has been shown to be good at using a wide range of tools to achieve price stability.

"So I believe that we are on the right track when it comes to monetary policy. ... We will do what is necessary, we did it in the past,” he added.

ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos, at the same conference, said the ECB would stick to a data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting approach to monetary policy given the high level of uncertainty linked to geopolitical developments.