ECB did not discuss extending or ending QE, says Draghi

The European Central Bank did not discuss extending or ending its asset purchase programme ahead of Thursday's policy decision, President Mario Draghi said.

The ECB's Governing Council decided to maintain its asset purchase programme at €80bn per month until March 2017, as expected by analysts.

The central bank voted to leave interest rates at 0%, the marginal lending facility at 0.25% and the deposit facility at -0.40%, which was also anticipated.

At a press conference following the policy announcement, Draghi said policymakers left the question of its QE programme off the table in its discussions.

"Sometimes it's ... important to say what we did not discuss. And we didn't discuss tapering or the intended horizon of our asset purchase programme," he said.

However, Draghi hinted that policymakers may extend the programme beyond March later in the year. He said the ECB is currently re-examining the design of the QE programme and would make a decision at the 8 December meeting.

Many analysts expect the ECB will extend the programme past March at the December meeting when new economic forecasts become available.

"At its December meeting, the ECB will probably lower its GDP estimates for 2016 and 2017 marginally if growth in the second half of 2016 slips below the pace of 0.4% quarter-on-quarter as we forecast," Berenberg's Kallum Pickering said.

"In addition the ECB will likely project that it will take more than two years to get close to the inflation target of just below 2%. As such, we expect the ECB to announce that it will prolong its current €80bn asset purchases by at least three and more likely by six months beyond March 2017."

Draghi denied reports the ECB was looking to taper asset purchases. Eurozone officials were earlier this month quoted by Bloomberg as saying the ECB will gradually wind down bond purchases before the conclusion of QE and may do so in steps of €10bn.

In response to a question at the conference, the president said an "abrupt ending" to bond purchases is "unlikely".