All ECB policymakers but one approve small hike with more to come -sources

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - All European Central Bank policymakers but one agreed to slowing down the pace of rate increases at Thursday's meeting while guiding for more hikes ahead, four sources told Reuters, with some seeing two or three further rises in borrowing costs.

Austria's Robert Holzmann was the sole holdout as the euro zone's central bankers decided on a 25-basis-point rate increase, but he lacked voting rights due to a scheduled rotation on the ECB's Governing Council, the sources said.

Holzmann did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and an ECB spokesman declined to comment.

A few policymakers initially pushed for a 50-basis-point increase but they joined the majority in return for a pledge to communicate that more hikes were needed in the coming months, and for a decision to stop all purchases under the ECB's Asset Purchase Programme, the sources added.

Some policymakers, they said, privately anticipate at least two if not three more hikes by the ECB, which has already raised rates seven times since last July by a total 375 basis points.

Policymakers at Thursday's meeting were unanimous that the ECB should not sell bonds under its APP even after it stops replacing those that mature in July, the sources said.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa, Balazs Koranyi and Frank Siebelt, editing by Mark Heinrich)