ECB's Liikanen says 'helicopter money' not on table

European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said on Thursday the council had not discussed the idea of 'helicopter money' in its meetings.

"This is an old, theoretical discussion... and I don't want to participate in it," he said in an interview with Finnish public radio YLE.

"We haven't discussed this in our meetings."

Helicopter money is an idea made popular by the American economist Milton Friedman in 1969, when he suggested that dropping money out of helicopters for citizens to pick up was a sure way to restart the economy and effectively fight deflation.