Policies working, ECB must persist with purchase programmes - Constancio

SITGES, Spain (Reuters) - The European Central Bank's monetary policy, aimed at raising inflation in the euro zone area, is working according to plan, ECB vice president Vitor Constancio said on Saturday, citing recent figures.

"We have to persist in our policies as promised, given that these encouraging projections are predicated on the full implementation of our purchase programmes until next year," Constancio said at a conference in Sitges, northeastern Spain.

He added that policy interventions always carried side-effects but that no "generalised overvaluations" in European markets had been identified.

(Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Catherine Evans)