World News: ECB Signals Readiness to Do More
FRANKFURT -- The European Central Bank is willing to do more if needed to support the euro bloc's struggling economy and banks, ECB President Mario Draghi signaled on Monday, days after officials lowered interest rates to record lows.</br></br>"The ECB will keep the liquidity lines open to all solvent banks," Mr. Draghi said in testimony to the European Parliament. The central bank "retains full capacity to act in a firm and timely manner" to ensure price stability, he said.</br></br>Mr. Draghi emphasized that this means guarding against both excess inflation and inflation rates that are too low.</br></br>Last week, the ECB lowered its benchmark lending rate by one-quarter point to a record-low 0.75%.</br></br>"Whether we were going to do more than that . . . we have to look at what the situation is, then we'll make up our minds," Mr. Draghi said.