ECB can move rates back into positive territory: Visco

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank can start raising interest rates, perhaps as soon as July, moving them gradually back into positive territory, Italian central bank chief Ignazio Visco told Bloomberg TV on Friday.

"Inflation expectations are now at around 2% and apparently, they're going to stay there," Visco said. "Therefore we can move and we can move gradually, raising interest rates in the coming months."

"Now, I think that we can move out this negative territory," Visco said, adding that a hike in June is out of the question but "perhaps July" could be the date of lift-off.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, Editing by William Maclean)