ECB's Praet see negative inflation for most of this year

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Inflation in the euro zone will probably be negative for most of this year, European Central Bank Executive Board member Peter Praet said on Thursday.

Euro zone inflation showed a reading of minus 0.6 percent in January.

Praet, the ECB's chief economist, added that he had been disappointed by the take-up of long-term loans, or TLTROs, that the ECB began offering banks last year.

Banks took barely more than half the 400 billion euros (300 billion pounds) of the TLTROs on offer last year, prompting the ECB to alter their pricing.

(Reporting by John O'Donnell; Writing by Paul Carrel)