The European Central Bank has room for more action to address the euro zone's economic problems but does not need emergency measures, ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said.
"One surely has further opportunities. I may point out we are not in recession, we have positive growth rates," Mr Nowotny said.
"It is not as if the ECB has to open the emergency pharmacy now," he said when asked about what step the ECB could still take.
He had earlier told an investment conference in Vienna that it was "nonsense" to call the ECB a "bad bank" for its plan to buy asset-backed securities as a way to spur the economy, although he said the focus had to be on quality rather than quantity.
He reiterated that a weaker euro exchange rate against the dollar was good for the European economy and reduced the risk of protracted low inflation.
Meanwhile, ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said today that the euro zone economy is still on a recovery path and the European Central Bank expects it to grow in the third and fourth quarters.
Speaking to reporters at a conference hosted by the Bank of Latvia in Riga, Coeure repeated the ECB's line that its Governing Council is "ready to take additional non-conventional measures, if needed."
"The euro zone is still on a recovery path. We expect growth to be positive in the third quarter and the fourth quarter in the euro zone," he added.
Turning to the ECB's latest plans to buy private sector assets, he added: "We will start within the next days to purchase the assets that are foreseen under our new purchase programmes, with the objective to steer the balance sheet of the ECB to a higher level."
