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Protectionism is a "bad idea" - ECB's Coeure

Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said on Monday that economic protectionism was a bad idea, as he commented on new U.S. President Donald Trump, who has backed protectionist policies.

"Protectionism, at this current moment, is clearly a bad idea," Coeure told France's Radio Classique, while adding it was too early to comment more specifically because the newly inaugurated U.S. head of state had yet to clarify his precise economic policies.

Coeure also reiterated that it was too early for the ECB to change its ultra-loose monetary policy, and that it was important that monetary conditions in the euro zone were set to be the "most appropriate" for the euro zone economy.

On Jan 19, the ECB decided to keep its policy stance unchanged, wanting to see further improvements in growth and inflation. In December, it scaled down its monthly purchases by a quarter to 60 billion euros (51.5 billion pounds) from April but extended the programme until the end of 2017.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Andrew Callus)