ECB to maintain status quo when it meets on Thursday: traders

The euro zone's central bank may discuss technical adjustments to its asset purchase scheme but a decision could be deferred until December, sources familiar with the discussion told Reuters last week.

Euro zone inflation was just 0.4 percent in September on an annual basis, nowhere near the ECB's 2 percent target ceiling, but 15 of 19 traders in Monday's Reuters poll said the ECB would keep policy unchanged on Thursday.

The other four traders expect the ECB to announce an extension to its monthly bond-buying beyond its current end-date in March 2017.

When asked what the ECB would do by year-end, 11 of 19 traders said the ECB would make no changes to policy. The remainder said it would extend quantitative easing beyond March 2017, increase the amount of monthly asset purchases, or both.

Currently the ECB buys bonds worth 80 billion euros each month.

The regular survey showed banks will take 31.0 billion euros ($34.7 billion) from the ECB at its weekly refinancing operation, similar to the 32.9 billion euros maturing from last week.

ALLOTMENT ONE WEEK

MEDIAN 31.0

MEAN 31.0

MODE 30.0

HIGHEST 35.0

LOWEST 20.0

COUNT 21

GUIDE TO EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS ON ECB OPEN MARKET OPERATIONS

ECB WEBSITE

($1 = 0.8928 euros)

(Reporting by Shrutee Sarkar; Polling by Hari Kishan; Editing by Catherine Evans)