According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"It's important that the ECB continues its supportive monetary policy and aims at its inflation target," European Union economics chief Mr. Olli Rehn said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
He noted this view wasn't advice to the ECB, which is independent of other EU institutions, but rather based on analysis from the commission's economists.
Banks across the euro area should also start addressing any capital shortfalls before they undergo a review of the quality of their balance sheets and stress tests later this year, Mr. Rehn added, noting that Italian banks are among those already doing this.
And while stressing that the euro zone no longer faces the risk of falling apart, Mr. Rehn said there was no space to slow down reforms, neither in larger euro-zone economies such as France and Italy nor in bailout countries.
Greece's fraught bailout review, currently suspended for the third time, will be completed "in the next few months," Mr. Rehn said. His comment will add to concerns that the country's €240 billion bailout—financed by the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund—is veering off track.
"Greece needs to do its homework," Mr. Rehn said, citing delays in preparation for negotiations over fiscal and structural reforms as the reason for the stalled progress in the review.
Greece can't get more cash out of its bailout unless the review is completed.
Covering Greece's financing needs for the second half of 2014 and completing the recapitalization of its banks are the short-term goals, Mr. Rehn said.
But its creditors will only start talking about Greece's 2015/16 fiscal plans and what holes they may burn into its budget, as well a way to reduce its government debt, "over the summer," Mr. Rehn said. Those talks had been expected to take place in the spring, once Eurostat corroborates Greece's fiscal performance for the previous year in the second half of April.
