"Of course any private or public assets that we might buy would have to meet certain quality standards", Mr Weidmann said in an interview with Market News. "But the overall question is one of effectiveness, costs and side-effects. The intended effects would then have to be weighed against the costs and side-effects."

Mr Weidmann cited limits under the ECB's mandate on funding eurozone governments. However, he added: "This does not mean that a QE programme is generally out of the question. But we have to ensure that the prohibition of monetary financing is respected", he said. "We need to discuss this and ideally achieve a common view." Mr Weidmann also said the ECB could introduce negative interest rates to counter a strong appreciation of the euro, a move which he appeared to favour over QE.

Several international bodies, including the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have called for the ECB to embark on a programme of asset purchases to fight deflation. Mr Draghi said this month that QE was one of three measures the ECB could deploy to aid Europe's credit recovery. "We have hinted on several occasions at various measures. One was the revitalisation of the ABS (asset backed securities) market, and another one was funding for lending. And a third could be QE", he said.

However, launching QE could prove to be problematic. The German constitutional court ruled last month that the ECB’s bond rescue plan, known as Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) is probably "Ultra Vires".

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