ECB normalisation will be long and slow: Praet

LONDON (Reuters) - European Central Bank policy will need to remain accommodating for a long time to come, Peter Praet, the bank's chief economist said on Tuesday, playing down speculation that the ECB was getting ready to tighten policy more quickly.

ECB president Mario Draghi predicted on Monday a "relatively vigorous" pick-up in underlying inflation, taken by some investors as a signal for a quicker pace in normalising policy.

"There was nothing new," Praet told a conference in London, referring to the Draghi speech. "Clearly we see progress in the underlying (prices), what is behind the inflation process. But it's a long process and conditioned on very easy monetary conditions."

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Andrew Heavens)