“The European Central Bank has given the strongest signal yet that it is prepared to embrace quantitative easing to prevent the eurozone from sliding into deflation or even a prolonged period of low inflation.”

“The ECB ignored calls from Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, to immediately deploy exceptional monetary policy measures, such as bond buying, and kept interest rates at 0.25 per cent for the fifth month in a row.”

“But Mario Draghi, ECB president, sought to address concerns the central bank is complacent about ultra-low inflation by saying the 24-member governing council was united in its support for more radical action should the outlook disappoint.”

“‘The governing council is unanimous in its commitment to using also unconventional instruments within its mandate in order to cope effectively with risks of a too prolonged period of low inflation,‘” Mr Draghi said.

“His comments caused the euro to fall by half a percentage point against the dollar to trade at 1.3702 by 4:30pm in London – its lowest level since late February. The yields of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese bonds, which move inversely to prices, fell to multiyear lows.”

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Read full Financial Times article here.