ECB's Nowotny thinks QE decision due in December

VIENNA (Reuters) - European Central Bank policymakers are likely to decide at their meeting in December how to proceed with their quantitative easing policy, ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said on Friday. "The most important issue is economic development in relation to the inflation outlook on the one hand and of course to the outlook for the real economy as well," he told reporters on the sidelines of an investor conference. Asked if a decision would be taken in December, he said: "One certainly always has to be cautious, but I expect so." The ECB left its ultra-loose monetary policy unchanged on Thursday but kept the door open to more stimulus in December, shooting down any talk of tapering its 1.7 trillion-euro asset-buying programme. (Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Editing by Michael Shields, Larry King)