Draghi: Now is time to face challenges to eurozone stability

The eurozone's economic recovery is "robust" and there is "unabated growth momentum" ahead, so now is the time to face the remaining, underlying problems, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Friday.

Speaking in Frankfurt, he cited a rebound in world trade, the edging down of gross household debt, record employment and robust private consumption. The 19-nation euro area has had 18 consecutive quarters of economic growth and headwinds that had weighed "have now largely dissipated," he said.

"With the recovery ongoing, now is the right moment for the euro area to address further challenges to stability," Draghi said, according to a copy of his speech on the ECB website. "This means putting our fiscal houses in order and building up buffers for the future -- not just waiting for growth to gradually reduce debt."

He said there should be structural reforms that allow economies to grow at higher speeds over the long term and structural gaps in monetary union should be addressed.

The ECB has been buying €60 billion worth of assets each month in an effort to boost inflation to its target of below but close to 2%. It said last month that from January that will halve to €30 billion and continue until the end of September 2018, or beyond, if necessary, until there is a "sustained adjustment" in price rises towards the ECB's target.

Consumer prices across the eurozone increased an annual 1.4% in October, Luxembourg-based Eurostat said on Thursday. That's compared with 1.5% in September and 0.5% in October, 2016.

The ECB's annual projections are for a 1.5% increase in prices this year and 1.2% in 2018.

"We are not yet at a point where the recovery of inflation can be self-sustained without our accommodative policy," Draghi said. "An ample degree of monetary stimulus remains necessary for underlying inflation pressures to build up and support headline inflation over the medium term."

Draghi said there is "little evidence" that historically-low ECB interest rates are hurting banks' profitability.

"Net interest income has remained quite stable over the past two years," he said. "If there are any negative effects of low interest rates on net interest income in the future, they should be largely offset by the positive effects of monetary stimulus on the other main components of profitability."