ECB policymakers keen at October meeting to affirm plan to cut stimulus - minutes

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank policymakers stressed at their meeting in October the need to reaffirm plans to dial back monetary stimulus even as some saw growing risks to the economy, minutes showed on Thursday.

Calls for a new round of multi-year loans and for a more cautious outlook were isolated, the minutes of their meeting showed.

Investors have been questioning the ECB's resolve to follow through on its intention to stop its massive bond purchases at the end of the year and raise interest rates sometime after next summer.

ECB trend-setters acknowledged the disappointing economic data on Oct 24-25 but took the view that the outlook was still one of widespread economic growth and accelerating inflation.

"It was important to emphasise that the incoming information, while somewhat weaker than expected, remained overall consistent with an ongoing broad-based expansion of the euro area economy and gradually rising inflation," the ECB said in the minutes of the meeting.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Gareth Jones)