ECB's Liikanen says may need to tolerate higher inflation ahead

STOCKHOLM: European Central Bank may need to tolerate inflation above its target in future after a long period when inflation has undershot, Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said on Friday at a conference in Stockholm.

"We must understand that if, in the medium term and the longer term, we are under 2 percent for a long time, we have to tolerate inflation over 2 percent afterwards," Liikanen said.

"That's how it works. We have had such a long period of low inflation that we maybe have to accept higher inflation afterwards."