ECB's Knot says low interest rates look 'quasi-permanent'

• Interest rates in the euro zone look set to stay low for a long time, Dutch central bank governor and ECB board member Klaas Knot said
• "The ECB's decision last week has shown that the low interest rates are not exactly of a temporary nature, but rather becoming a quasi-permanent phenomenon.

AMSTERDAM: Interest rates in the euro zone look set to stay low for a long time, Dutch central bank governor and ECB board member Klaas Knot said in an interview published on Monday.

"The ECB's decision last week has shown that the low interest rates are not exactly of a temporary nature, but rather becoming a quasi-permanent phenomenon," Knot told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

A frequent critic of the bank's ultra-easy monetary policy, Knot slammed the ECB's new stimulus measures this month as disproportionate.

But low interest rates are not the result of monetary policy alone, he said.

"The interest rate drop over the last decades has to do with structural factors. We save a lot, but invest less. So, yes, monetary policy does have an impact, but it is definitely not the dominant factor."