Mario Draghi is facing down a deflation threat with few optionsleft to fight it.

Consumer prices in the euro area are rising at the slowest pacein four years, well below the European Central Bank's (ECB's)target of just under 2 percent. The ECB president has a choice ofcutting rates that are already near zero, injecting liquidity thatmay not boost prices, or ignoring the ECB's own definition of pricestability, according to banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co.and BNP Paribas SA.

A price slowdown could turn into a negative spiral that derailsthe recovery in the euro region. While the 17-nation economy exitedsix quarters of recession in the three months through June, itstill has record unemployment and shrinking bank lending.