ECB should keep policy options open regardless of Fed

The European Central Bank should keep its policy options open and not let itself be influenced by the Federal Reserve, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Sunday.

Encouraged by a recovery in euro zone inflation, the ECB expects to stop adding to its 2.6 trillion euro ($3.0 trillion) pile of bonds at the end of this year and has guided the market to expect a rate hike some time in late 2019.

Villeroy said the ECB would soon decide how to reinvest the proceeds of the bonds that expire next year but should not yet commit beyond that point.

“We should keep our options open about the timing of our reinvestment in the following years,” he told a conference on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting in the Indonesian resort town of Nusa Dua.