The European Central Bank's (ECB) asset purchase programme is pushing up inflation, but "it is now up to governments to seize on this opportunity to ensure that the cyclical recovery becomes permanent," argued Peter Praet yesterday, an executive board member at the ECB.

In a speech at the IMF Spring meetings seminar in Washington, DC, Praet expressed confidence over the ECB's monetary policy, which is "playing a key role" in returning inflation to its target.

However, despite the success of the