ECB needs help from other policy areas as 'lower bound' looms

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank's monetary stimulus needs to be complemented by action in other policy areas as the ECB is already operating near a "lower bound" where interest rates cannot be cut any farther, bank president Mario Draghi said on Wednesday. Calling for more academic research into the interplay between policies, Mario Draghi said: "To my mind it is increasingly evident that, when we operate near the lower bound, such interactions are heightened." (Reporting By Francesco Canepa)