(ANSA) - Davos, January 22 - European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi said Friday that the letter the central bank sent to national authorities requesting information about how they are managing banks' non-performing loans (NPLs) was misinterpreted in Italy. "It was nothing more than a way to know the different national practices on this," Draghi said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Concerns about the number of bad loans on some Italian banks' balance sheets has been a factor in recent stock-market turbulence, despite government reassurances that the Italian banking system is solid. But European markets, including the Milan bourse, bounced back strongly on Thursday after Draghi said the ECB's interest rates will stay long for a long time and that the bank is ready to do everything possible to lift eurozone inflation towards its target of slightly under 2%.

Draghi said Friday that hopes of lifting eurozone inflation rates that are considered dangerously low have been hit. "There is less cause for optimism about inflation prospects," Draghi said at a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Draghi added that this is "not just die to the strong fall in oil prices" but also because of "the downward revision of the growth prospects of the emerging economies".

