The European Central Bank will act decisively again if downside risks materialize, ECB Executive Board member Peter Praet said in an interview to the Financial Times, published on Tuesday.

"If some of the downside risks do materialise, then - because price pressures are already weak today - we would act decisively again," Praet said. "This view is very strongly shared by the governing council members."

"Given the subdued outlook for prices, we are already doing a lot," he told the newspaper. "We have cut rates. Since July 2012, our overnight rate has been in general lower than that controlled by any other major central bank."

Praet said that the ECB is aware that price pressures are likely to remain subdued for a prolonged period of time. The central bank still expects inflation rates to converge again towards 2 percent as the cyclical upswing of the economy takes hold.

However, he said this will take some time given the nature of the shock, namely the unwinding of real and financial imbalances, and the possibly longer than normal transmission lag of monetary policy in such an environment.

RTTNews