European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet has said the bank has to prepare for exceptional situations and does not rule out further action to support the euro zone economy.
His remarks came in an interview with China Finance. The ECB has cut rates by 2.25 percentage points to 2% since last October and announced a range of measures to boost liquidity flows. It is expected to cut rates further in March.
Earlier, the ECB's chief economist said the bank was wary of cutting euro zone interest rates too quickly.
'Gradualism has remained a critical aspect of our monetary policy,' Jurgen Stark told the Financial Times in an interview that suggested future rate cuts could be smaller than the most recent ones.
Mr Stark said 'overly aggressive' rate cuts at a time when it could not see any risk of deflation would exacerbate uncertainty.
'In my view there is still room to go lower,' Stark told the FT, but he added that the ECB was moving closer to a level where it could not do more.
