WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- While it isn't yet time for the European Central Bank to exit special measures put in place during the crisis, the bank knows what it has to do when the time comes, the ECB's vice president said Saturday.

"Exit would be premature of course, but conceptually we know how to do it," Vitor Constancio said at a panel on financial stability. "What is important is that central banks have forever changed the way they conduct monetary policy, and there is no going back."

He added that the risk of deflation in the euro zone is "negligible."

- By Frances Robinson, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1486; frances.robinson@dowjones.com