By Paul Hannon 

Ireland's finance minister Friday called on the European Central Bank to launch a program of quantitative easing, and said the government will repay half of its loans from the International Monetary Fund in the coming weeks.

In an interview with Ireland's Newstalk radio station, Michael Noonan said the stronger performance of the U.S. and U.K. economies in recent years was proof of the efficacy of QE, under which central banks buy government bonds and other assets using freshly created money.

Figures released Friday showed the annual rate of inflation in the eurozone slipped back to a five-year low of 0.3% in November, while the number of people without jobs rose for the second straight month in October.

Mr. Noonan said that while the eurozone's crisis "in terms of collapse is over," the central bank needed to do more to aid the economic recovery.

"There is one piece missing--the ability of the central bank to do quantitative easing," he said. "Monetary policy in Europe is very weak."

Mr. Noonan noted that the U.S. and U.K. economies are growing much more rapidly than their eurozone counterparts.

"The difference was their central banks were able to intervene," he said. "There is still a flaw in the European system."

Recent comments by senior ECB officials have heightened investor expectations that the central bank will start to buy government bonds early next year.

ECB President Mario Draghi on Nov. 21 put financial markets on alert that the ECB was losing patience with ultralow levels of inflation and was ready to do more.

His deputy, Vitor Constancio, on Wednesday sent the strongest signal to date that the ECB is prepared to buy government bonds early next year if it decides that more aggressive stimulus measures are needed.

Mr. Noonan also said the government will repay half of its EUR18 billion ($22.5 billion) in loans from the IMF before the end of the year, a move he said will reduce its interest payments by EUR750 million over the next five years.

The government announced its intention to repay the loans earlier this year, using money raised through bond sales at a lower interest rate than is charged by the IMF. Mr. Noonan said that while the IMF charges an interest rate of 5% on its loans, the government can borrow from the bond markets at around 2%.

He said the government will sell more bonds in the first half of next year to repay the remaining EUR9 billion. The IMF loans were due to be repaid by 2023.

The IMF provided the loans as part of an international bailout arranged for the Irish government in late 2010. By that time, the Irish government had spent large sums propping up banks that faced heavy losses in the wake of a property market crash. Yields on Irish government bonds were surging as investors speculated on how much it would ultimately cost the government to repair the banking system, making it difficult for the government to finance itself on affordable terms.

Mr. Noonan said he is "confident" the government will recoup the money it invested in the troubled banks, including EUR21 billion in AIB. However, he said that will take a number of years, and said there will be no "fire sale" of the government's remaining holdings of bank shares.

The finance minister said he had received an offer for the government's stake in AIB on Wednesday, but the sum was too low. He added that he has "no intention" of selling the government's stake in the Bank of Ireland.