The president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, has delivered a vigorous defence of the unconventional stimulus measures pushed through by central banks since the global financial crisis a decade ago.

Speaking at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany, Mr Draghi rejected the idea that negative interest rates and massive money printing operations by central banks have grossly distorted financial markets and done more harm than good to economies.

“A large body of empirical research has substantiated the success of these policies in supporting the economy and inflation, both in the euro area and in the United States,” Mr Draghi told the audience, which included 17 Nobel prize winners.

“Policy actions undertaken in the last 10 years in monetary policy and in regulation and supervision have made the world more resilient. But we should continue preparing for new challenges,” Mr Draghi said.

The ECB is currently still implementing a €2 trillion asset purchase programme, begun in 2015, which was designed to stave off the threat of deflation from the single currency area.

Amid increasing signs of a cyclical recovery in the eurozone and indications that the ECB is running out of eligible assets to purchase, traders have been looking for signs that it will soon start tapering off its €60bn a month purchases of eurozone government bonds and to bring the programme to an end.

But subdued eurozone inflation may stay the ECB’s hand.

Inflation was just 1.3 per cent in July, unchanged on June and well down from the 1.9 per cent rate seen as recently as April.

The euro has been trading close to a two-and-a-half-year high against the dollar, helping to exert downward pressure on prices.

Mr Draghi made no mention of tapering, or the removal of stimulus in his Lindau speech.