Mario Draghi is claiming victory for his quantitative-easing program before it even starts. As the European Central Bank president set a start date of Monday for his 1.1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) bond-buying program, he said the stimulus would spur the euro area's fastest economic growth since 2007 and return inflation to the ECB's goal within three years.

After consumer prices fell 0.3 percent in February, the bank now sees a deflationary spiral averted.

The ECB's goal is just below 2 percent, a level not seen since early 2012 .

As for economic growth, the ECB's economists lifted their outlook for this year to 1.5 percent from 1 percent, for 2016 to 1.9 percent, and projected 2.1 percent in 2017 .

The Central Bank may still be forced to inject more stimulus, said Joerg Kraemer, chief economist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt.

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