ECB should avoid hasty quantitative easing action, stay patient: Liikanen

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should not take hasty action in adjusting its asset purchase program, Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said on Tuesday, adding that he hoped the scheme could be ended next September as scheduled.

The ECB should take its inflation-targeting mandate seriously, especially after price moves turned negative last month, but monetary policy works with a lag so the bank needs to remain patient, Liikanen told German newspaper Boersen Zeitung.

The ECB has already said it may need to increase or extend the asset buys, known as quantitative easing, as the fall in commodity prices and the slowdown in emerging market growth push inflation down, creating a further downside risk to price growth.

"Monetary policy always works with a lag," Liikanen, who is also the Finnish central bank chief, told the newspaper. "If I compare the situation with a marathon I would say that we are only at kilometer 15."

"Let’s keep the tempo and let’s stick to our plan. And if things change, we should not draw any hasty conclusions."

The ECB is buying 60 billion euros worth of assets a month, hoping to boost inflation from a negative 0.1 percent in September to just under 2 percent over time.

"If you speculate too early about doing more it also weakens what you have already decided on," Liikanen said. "I hope it will be enough to buy until September 2016."

He added: "Our program is a long-term project and we do not question it every single day."

Easing growth in China and the low oil price are the biggest risks to the euro zone but the drop in crude prices appears to be supply-driven, which is less of a problem, said Liikanen.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by John O'Donnell/Mark Heinrich)

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