ECB: Mario Draghi defends his record against critics

The head of the European Central Bank (ECB) Mario Draghi on Friday defended his record, including the new measures to support the economy announced in September, at a time when dissent appeared within the institution on the cape to deal with a downturn.

"I defined our philosophy as doing 'all that is possible (…) as part of our mandate to carry out this mandate,'" he said in a speech to students at the Catholic University of Milan.

"Accepting failure is not an option when there are tools to enable public servants to fulfill their mandate," he added.

The Italian Mario Draghi, who passes the hand to the French Christine Lagarde at the head of the ECB on November 1, is now heavily criticized for relaunching the debt buyback program to support the economy of the euro area.

According to a report released Thursday, ECB governors clung to several points of the support package agreed in September, including a resumption of asset purchases and a decline in the rate on deposits in negative territory.

Mario Draghi did not respond directly to these criticisms by taking stock of his eight years as head of the bank, but he insisted that, according to him, "as a central bank for the euro area the ECB must have an overall view "and decide" whether the benefits (…) outweigh the potential costs ".

"The data suggested, and still suggest, that this is the case," he added.

In the aftermath of the tumultuous ECB meeting on 12 September, Klaas Knot, the governor of the Dutch Central Bank, said the device was "disproportionate" and Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said the ECB had "exceeded the terminals "by relaunching debt buybacks on the market.

The ECB's September decision to renew net asset repurchases, which has been dormant since December, did not appear "solid enough" in the eyes of several governors of the bank.

It was pointed out that there was no time horizon for this program called "QE" (for Quantitative Easing), which "could lead to higher purchase demands" on the market and "questioning" (its "limits," considered important "to ensure that the border between monetary policy and state funding is not blurred," the institute adds.

Mario Draghi said that the European Court of Justice had given the ECB "a lot of latitude" in "using all the tools" at its disposal.