The minutes of the European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council's meeting say that the central bankers "broadly shared" the view that a mass bond-buying, quantitative easing (QE) programme was necessary to avoid the threat of the on-set of a period of deflation.

But the decision was not unanimous. The bank's president, Mario Draghi had previously indicated that all central bankers supported the idea - but some were not ready to implement it at the time of the meeting.

Previous leaks said that Germany, Austria and the Netherlands opposed the launching of the programme - some of the comments in the minutes ask the bank to take a more cautious "wait-and-see" approach.

The ECB’s chief economist warned the Governing Council of the dangers of delaying the use of the unconventional economic tool.

The minutes say: "Taking into account both the weakened medium-term outlook for price stability and the smaller than envisaged monetary stimulus introduced by the policy measures adopted in June and September 2014, the prevailing degree of monetary policy accommodation was seen to fall short of sufficiently countering the heightened risks to the ECB's medium-term price stability objective."

The ECB hopes that the publishing of the minutes will make the workings of the bank more transparent. The move brings it in-line with other central banks like the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.

The bank is not publishing a full transcription - rather the ECB says that it offers "a fair and balanced reflection of policy deliberations."

Given the sensitive nature of the meetings, none of the 19 national central bankers are identifiable.