MORNING BID EUROPE-Euro zone facing more stress

* A daily view from acting EMEA Money and Politics Editor Jeremy Gaunt. The views expressed are his own.

LONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank wants to see some evidence that its 60 billion euros a month asset-buying programme is working. It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) probably won't see it today.

Preliminary data for euro zone inflation in August comes out later and it is expected to show prices rose 0.1 percent year-on-year.

This is hardly anything at all, of course, and also less than the 0.2 percent registered in July. It is not as low as it has been this year but it is clearly miles away from the near 2.0 percent the ECB wants.

It is also far from clear of deflation, which is the big threat. If that takes hold, getting rid of it would be like wrestling an oiled watermelon in a swimming pool.

Even (Taiwan OTC: 6436.TWO - news) more worrying for the ECB is that there is no sign that the world's deflationary pressures are easing. China is slowing and commodity prices are sliding.

It is likely to be too soon for the ECB to take more action at its meeting this week - although a surprisingly bad inflation number today might change that.

But unless things change, the ECB will almost certainly start buying more assets - aka: printing more money - either by upping the 60 billion euros ($67 billion) a month to something like 80 billion, or by publicly stating it will increase the total budget for asset purchases.

The big problem is that it is by no means certain that increasing asset-buying would work. The ECB says that it will do what it takes, but many economists reckon there isn't much more it can do.

In the meantime, French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron is stirring the pot by calling for a new euro zone with fiscal transfers. Germany won't have it - but the strains are showing as Macron suggests the current set-up won't survive. ($1 = 0.8909 euros) (editing by John Stonestreet)