ECB Governing Council member Klass Knot said he’d expects a decision in next week’s meeting that “should not be incompatible” with ending the PEPP in March. And, “that would imply a reduction in the purchase pace.”

Knot explained that “PEPP has a clearly delineated objective — repairing the damage that the coronavirus has inflicted on the inflation outlook.” And, “the stars are much better aligned than they have been for a long time for the return of inflation back to 2%.”

Though, he added, “I can understand that next week we may want to maintain some optionality, also to see how the delta variant will play out.”

ECB Governing Council member Robert Holzmann said in an interview, “we are now in a situation where we can think about how to reduce the pandemic special programs — I think that’s an assessment we share.””We have the opportunity to discuss how do we close the pandemic part and focus on the inflation part,” he added.

“If enough people share my opinion, we will certainly advise the Executive Board to slow down purchases in the fourth quarter and more so in the first,” Holzmann said. “We will spend as much as needed.”

ECB Governing Council member, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told BFM Business radio that the economies in France and the euro zone should be back to pre-COVID levels in early 2022 or maybe earlier.

He added there is no risk of higher inflation at this stage, and there is no risk of a sustainable surge in inflation in the Eurozone. He expected PEPP purchases to be there until at least March 2022. There is no urgency to decide on asset purchases at the September meeting.