European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said today that economic protectionism was a bad idea, as he commented on new US President Donald Trump, who has backed protectionist policies.
"Protectionism, at this current moment, is clearly a bad idea," Coeure told French radio.
He added that it was too early to comment more specifically because the newly inaugurated US head of state had yet to clarify his precise economic policies.
Coeure also reiterated that it was too early for the ECB to change its ultra-loose monetary policy, and that it was important that monetary conditions in the euro zone were set to be the "most appropriate" for the euro zone economy.
The ECB last week decided to keep its policy stance unchanged, wanting to see further improvements in growth and inflation.
In December, it scaled down its monthly purchases by a quarter to €60 billion from April but extended the programme until the end of 2017.
