FRANKFURT - The European Central Bank will finish a review of its operational framework for steering short-term interest rates by next spring, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Monday, pushing back the deadline of this exercise from end-2023.

Lagarde launched the review last December and said it would be done by the close of 2023, but signals from policymakers over the past several months had already pointed to a delay.

"Eurosystem staff is analysing the optimal long-run size and composition of our balance sheet – and by implication, the adequate level of excess liquidity," Lagarde said about the review. "This is not a trivial issue as it has implications for the way we implement monetary policy."

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)