FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank's interest rates are too low for Germany, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said on Saturday, adding that ECB monetary policy should remain expansive for no longer than absolutely necessary.
Speaking at a Bundesbank open day for the public, Weidmann noted that many savers in Germany were irritated by low interest rates but said these were aimed at supporting investment and consumption.
The ECB cut interest rates to record lows last month as part of a package of measures to breathe life into a sluggish euro zone economy, where inflation is running far below the central bank's target and there is a dearth of credit to smaller firms.
The German economy, Europe's largest, has been outperforming other countries in the bloc, however.
"It is clear that monetary policy, when seen from a German viewpoint, is too expansive for Germany, too loose," Weidmann told a crowd at the start of the open day. "If we pursued our own monetary policy, which we don't, it would look different."
"But we are in a currency union," he said. "That means that in our monetary policy decisions, we must orientate ourselves to the whole currency union."
Repeating a warning he has made previously about the risks of leaving policy loose for too long, Weidmann added: "This phase of low interest rates, this phase of expansive monetary policy, should not last longer than is absolutely necessary."
Bundesbank Vice President Claudia Buch said property prices were overvalued in some big city areas in Germany by up to 20-25 percent, but that there was no acute risk of a price bubble forming.
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