ECB's Knot wants more wiggle room around inflation target

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank (ECB) board member Klaas Knot appears at a Dutch parliamentary hearing in The Hague, Netherlands September 23, 2019 REUTERS/Eva Plevier
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EVA PLEVIER(Reuters)
NEWYORK (Reuters) – European Central Bank policymaker Klaas Knot called on Wednesday for a “symmetric band” around the ECB’s inflation target to give it more time and flexibility when setting monetary policy.
“One way to achieve this would be the introduction of a symmetric band around the inflation aim, which would buy the central bank time and flexibility in responding to forces it cannot control,” Knot told an event in New York.
“The monetary strategy could also be made more flexible by lengthening the horizon over which it would be desirable to bring inflation back towards its aim,” he added.
(Reporting By Balazs Koranyi; Writing by Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt; Editing by Andrew Heavens)