European Central Bank will do ‘what it must’ to raise inflation

“The impact of external factors and heightened uncertainty raised the possibility that the ECB’s measures, despite their magnitude, might not be gaining sufficient traction in the present environment to achieve their ultimate objective in terms of inflation rates”, the minutes stated.

“We should not ignore the risk that fiscal policy could get used to the very low interest rates”, Weidmann added.

He was reiterating previous comments that suggest Bank officials could expand a €1.1 trillion (£770bn) quantitative easing (QE) programme by increasing its size, or extending its time frame.

The euro fell as much as 0.5 percent to 69.85 pence, just above a three-month low of 69.82 pence hit on Wednesday. It was also up 0.2 percent at 123.00 yen and 0.4 percent against the basket at 99.336.

Today’s reversal for health care stocks followed Aetna ( AET ) confirming its full-year guidance, helping renew confidence for health care insurers that unraveled on Thursday after Dow component UnitedHealthcare ( UNH ) cut its 2016 guidance.

But another European Central Bank governing council member, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann, told the Frankfurt congress that he would take a more cautious approach to expanding the stimulus program. While Draghi and Executive Board member Peter Praet, the institution’s chief economist, have indicated more easing is in the cards, a few governors have expressed unease.

At 11:15 am ET, Federal Reserve Bank of NY President William Dudley is expected to speak about the economy at Hofstra University in NY.

On Friday in Frankfurt, Draghi said that the growth outlook for emerging markets had fallen short of expectations and said that global economic growth would be the lowest in six years.

Most major banks have stuck firmly to the view that the euro will fall toward parity with the dollar in the months ahead as the Federal Reserve begins to lift interest rates while the ECB takes the opposite course. Over the week, the single currency fell 0.6%, continuing its slide against the dollar. While that’s the highest reading in more than two years, it’s still barely half the goal for the headline rate.

“Low core inflation is not something we can be relaxed about, as it has in the past been a good forecaster for where inflation will stabilize in the medium-term”, Draghi is quoted as saying.

Under the ECB’s bond buying program which was launched in March, the central bank is buying EUR60 billion ($64.41 billion) a month in mostly government bonds. Currently, that rate is minus 0.2 percent. While Paret called for united European Central Bank policymakers, Draghi said to do whatever we can in next meeting.