FRANKFURT--European Central Bank officials were worried last month that the risk of crippling consumer-price declines were lurking in the eurozone, prompting them to approve a bond-purchase plan that was even larger than the one that the bank's chief economist had offered for consideration. The region faced "the risk of too prolonged a period of too low inflation," the ECB said in an account of its Jan. 22 policy deliberations released Thursday. "This, in turn, raised the possibility of deflationary forces setting in, which would not permit an attitude of 'benign neglect.' " As a result, most ECB council members approved a EUR60 billion a month bond-purchase program, mostly government bonds, that would start in March and run at least until September 2016. That was higher than the EUR50 billion monthly figure mentioned by ECB chief economist Peter Praet as an option to the full council, would could have run a little longer. "In order to accelerate the impact, there was broad support in favor of some frontloading," the ECB said in the meeting accounts. Write to Brian Blackstone at brian.blackstone@wsj.com

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