Hansson says ECB has room to cut rates, other options

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank still has room to cut interest rates, and could move by less than the usual 25 basis points, ECB Governing Council Ardo Hansson was quoted as saying on Monday.

"The options on rate cuts are still not fully exhausted and there are all kinds of other measures that are still on the table," Hansson told news agency Bloomberg in an interview.

"I don't see us, by any means, running out of our toolkit of things we can draw on."

Hansson, who also heads the Bank of Estonia, also said that the ECB was technically ready to take its deposit rate into negative territory, and implied it could scrap its tradition of moving in 25 basis-point increments.

"We've had a tradition of using those 25 basis points so I'd have to look at some analysis of different options. Theoretically, a smaller cut wouldn't be off the table. Certainly, the bigger the move, the more impact you have," Hansson was quoted as saying.

(Reporting by Sakari Suoninen)