Euro zone price pressures continue to ease, giving European Central Bank policymakers increased confidence inflation will ease back to target next year, Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot said on Tuesday.

If growth and price developments remain on their current path, then it will be appropriate for the ECB to start removing some monetary restriction and June could be the first opportunity for the ECB to cut interest rates, Knot told a conference.

"If we manage to continue on this track, incoming data continues to validate this development, then it will be appropriate for us to gradually take our foot off the brake and remove some of the restrictive monetary policy," Knot said alongside Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Bart Meijer; writng by Balazs Koranyi; editing by Alexandra Hudson)