* Says growth risks are balanced
* Says oil prices the main driver of inflation pick-up
* Sends no signal on further rate hikes
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By Toni Vorobyova
MOSCOW, April 14 (Reuters) - Inflation risks in the euro zone have risen, not least because of high oil prices, while economic growth risks are balanced, ECB Executive Board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said on Thursday.
Investors are scrutinising ECB rhetoric to determine how soon the central bank could raise interest rates again after hiking for the first time since 2008 last week. [ID:nLDE7351QH] Most analysts expect the next rate move by July. [ECB/INT]
"Risks to growth are balanced, inflation (risks are) to the upside," Gonzalez-Paramo told reporters on the sidelines of the Risk & Return Russia conference in Moscow.
"Oil prices are the main driver of the recent increase in inflation. The expectation in the market is that oil will not go down quickly," he added, noting that it was the ECB's job to ensure that oil prices do not push inflation above target.
He made no reference to the likelihood of further rate hikes, contrasting with other ECB ratesetters who recently signalled the bank is ready to tighten monetary policy again in coming months. [ID:nLDE73C21S]
ECB Governing Council member Luc Coene said on Wednesday that last week's 25 basis point rise in the refinancing rate to 1.25 percent was not a one-off.
Mario Draghi, also of the 23-member policy setting Governing Council, said the ECB's main rate is "very accommodating" even after the hike and that it is looking at ways to withdraw its "exceptionally expansionary" monetary stance.
For his part, Gonzalez-Paramo simply reiterated the ECB's line that they "never pre-commit on interest rates".
"We will monitor in real time what the developments in inflation and in particular in inflation expectations," he told the conference when asked whether the ECB would hike again soon.
He said the ECB's non-standard stimulus measures, introduced during the crisis, were independent of its traditional monetary policy steps, and thus were not an impediment to interest rate hikes.
Gonzalez-Paramo also said that Greece should be able to return to the markets for funding by early next year as planned if it follows the terms of its European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout programme.
"The implementation of the programme is key to the return to the market," he said, adding that so far the assessment of Greece's progress on the programme was "positive".
Some officials have voiced concern that about the size of the Greek debt burden, and raised the prospect of a possible need for a restructuring. [ID:nLDE73C28V]
(Editing by John Stonestreet)