PARIS (Reuters). Francois Villeroy de Galhau, ECB policymaker, said Monday that a reemergence of COVID cases or an increase in inflation does not justify a reduction in ECB’s plans to end March emergency bond purchases.

With the 1.85-trillion euro Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, (PEPP), set to expire in March by the European Central Bank, the ECB must decide in December whether it will continue or if another program has been in effect since 2015.

Current developments don’t change that assessment. Villeroy spoke in interview with Boersen Zeitung to state that we need to end PEPP net purchase in March 2022 from today’s point of view.

He said that financial markets had been anticipating the end of March and there were no reason to be concerned about disruptive “cliff effects” if it did.

While a rise in COVID in certain euro-zone countries has clouded the economic outlook for some, a spike in inflation this past year has prompted warnings by ECB hawks not to keep monetary policies too loose.

Villeroy urged a “patient” and “vigilant” response by the ECB, pointing out that the eurozone economy is not in danger of falling into recession and that the inflation “hump”, which was temporary, was due to business bottlenecks.