Member of the ECB governing council and Governor of the Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournaras talks during an interview with Reuters in Athens, Greece, October 11, 2023. In the interview, Greece's central bank governor also warned about the risk of stagflation from a prolonged war in the Middle East and spoke against increasing the amount of reserves that banks must hold. He countered calls by some of his colleagues for an early end to the ECB's last surviving bond-buying scheme, saying the central bank may need that firepower in a geopolitical environment fraught with risks. The ECB all but stopped buying bonds last year after a sudden surge in inflation forced it to unwind a decade of stimulus policies. "For the moment I see no reason why we should tighten monetary policy now because increasing the minimum requirements will imply monetary policy tightening," Stournaras said.

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Persons: Yannis Stournaras, Louisa Gouliamaki, Rome, ECB policymaker Yannis Stournaras, Stournaras, Francesco Canepa, Mark Potter Organizations: Bank of Greece, Reuters, REUTERS, European Central Bank, ECB policymaker, ECB, Investors, European Commission, Thomson Locations: Athens, Greece, ATHENS, Israel, Palestine, Italy, Rome