Timing of ECB rate hike still not fixed - Dutch central bank governor

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The European Central Bank (ECB) will have to start discussing the timing of an interest rate hike in January and the outcome of that debate is still open, Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot said on Monday.

Knot stood by the ECB’s current guidance that interest rates would remain at their current, record-low level through next summer but said this was only an expectation.

"We are very comfortable with our choice of words", Knot told reporters.

"But it reflects an expectation, and as any statistician knows, an expectation represents the midpoint in a collection of outcomes, and always holds the possibility of other outcomes to the left or the right of that point."

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Andrew Heavens)