FRANKFURT -- European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said the eurozone's chief monetary authority is willing to "step up the pressure" and broaden its efforts to stimulate the struggling economy. Draghi said Friday at a banking congress in Frankfurt that if current efforts do not achieve the desired effect the ECB could "broaden even more the channels through which we intervene." The ECB has already lowered its benchmark interest rate to near zero and started purchasing bonds made up of bank loans to companies -- an effort to boost lending and economic activity. Draghi said the bank could alter "the size, pace and composition of our purchases." Some economists think the bank could widen the bond purchases to include corporate or government bonds in an effort to pump newly created money into the financial system -- so-called quantitative easing, or QE. The U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and Bank of England have made such purchases to stimulate growth.
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