The eurozone economy still has "significant need" to catch up to other major regions, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said on Friday, June 6, and a package of measures the ECB took on Thursday should help by boosting bank lending.

He noted, however, that a new program that provides long-term liquidity to banks would be effective only from autumn, according to Reuters.

The ECB cut interest rates to record lows on Thursday, launched a series of measures to pump money into the sluggish eurozone economy and pledged to do more if needed to fight off the risk of Japan-like deflation.