ECB 'hawk' Nowotny says decision on TLTROs may not come until 'summer'

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Austrian central bank chief, Ewald Nowotny, said: "It's still unclear at the moment whether the weakening of the economy is driven by special factors. And there are special factors, like emissions and the German car industry, special American economic policy and so on.

"If it is a special factor and things change, I would say there is no need."

His remarks were somewhat more hawkish, but nevertheless quite similar, to those made by other top ECB officials over the course of roughly the last ten days.

Nowotny, who also sits on the ECB's Governing Council, explicitly mentioned the possible recourse by the ECB to further loans for banks in the single currency bloc, which are known as Targeted Long-Term Refinance Operations, towards summer.

Yet just the day before, research teams from two top investment banks had been discussing the possibility of such an announcement being made as soon as next March, when ECB staff were set to publish their next set of macroeconomic projections, if not at April's GC meeting.

Some analysts had however also held out the possibility of new TLTROs not being unveiled until June.

On the subject of the ECB's so-called 'forward guidance', which currently was for interest rates to remain at their present level at least through the summer, Nowotny said that the GC should be cognisant that market expectations were now for rates to remain unchanged for even longer.

But he reportedly added that neither should the ECB just follow the market.