ECB's Linde says reducing QE should be done slowly

FLORENCE (Reuters) - Bank of Spain governor and European Central Bank policymaker Luis Maria Linde said on Thursday it was important that any reduction in the bond-buying programme known as quantitative easing be done slowly and not abruptly.

"There's a deadline in March next year and a discussion is under way on scaling it back gradually because you can't go from a certain amount to zero in 24 hours," Linde said in a debate with students in Florence.

The ECB is due to consider in December whether to extend its 80 billion euros per month of asset purchases beyond March, as inflation remains far below its target of just under 2 percent.

Linde said he could not say when the quantitative easing (QE) programme would be halted.

"These are uncommon measures which will be halted once the situation normalises, which means when inflation will return close to or below 2 percent," he said.

Data on Thursday indicated that both corporate and household lending growth has levelled off below 2 percent, keeping the pressure on the ECB to maintain its aggressive stimulus policy for months to come.

Linde said scaling back the QE programme slowly was important for markets.

"For me going slow is a very important thing, only if we go slowly will we avoid surprises on the financial markets because surprises are dangerous," he said.

(Reporting by Silvia Ognibene, writing by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Toby Chopra)