(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank should take time to see if the euro-area economy can overcome global stresses, according to council member Klaas Knot, who said he wants no new policy signals for months to come.

Monetary officials for the 19-nation currency bloc, who will meet in two weeks, intend to phase out their bond-buying program this year despite rising trade protectionism, Brexit uncertainties, and concerns over Italy’s public finances. The Dutch governor, one of the more hawkish members of the Governing Council, sees no reason to revisit the plans.

“We are well advised to first wait and see how these risks will actually play out, because they are downside risks, but they might not materialize, or materialize to a lesser extent than we thought,” Knot said in an interview in Bali, Indonesia, where the International Monetary Fund annual meetings are taking place this week.

“It might be best to spend the rest of 2018 quietly winding down our asset-purchase program, and then from January onward start focusing on what to do with rates.”

Concerns in the Governing Council were highlighted on Thursday with the publication of the account of its September meeting. Officials focused on the impact of trade protectionism and even said that there was a case for characterizing the risks to growth as “tilted to the downside” -- the current language says they are “broadly balanced” -- before deciding to hold back from raising the alarm.

The ECB anticipates capping its quantitative-easing program at 2.6 trillion euros ($3 trillion) at the end of the year and keeping interest rates at record lows at least through the summer of 2019.

Continued Support

Knot said that he and his colleagues haven’t yet discussed what additional changes they might make after net bond-buying ends, and he sees no urgency to do so. While investors have speculated that the ECB might tweak its policy of reinvesting maturing assets to provide more-targeted support, he said it sometimes seems “there is an overestimation of the amount of leeway that is actually there.”

He said he has no strong views about how to communicate changes in interest rates after the first hike -- a topic increasingly on policy makers’ minds -- though he prefers linking guidance to the state of the economy rather than any specific timeframe.

“It is understood by everybody that you cannot lay out a concrete time path, because the economy never develops in a straight line,” Knot said. “On all the other aspects, I really am open-minded.”

Ardo Hansson, the head of Estonia’s central bank, expressed similar optimism that euro-area inflation is on the right track in an interview earlier on Thursday. He said labor-market developments are “very convincing” and a shortage of equipment at companies was adding to upward price pressures.

“In our projections and in incoming data there is confirmation that we will continue to generate GDP growth in the euro area that outpaces potential growth,” Knot said. “That, we are convinced in the council, should lead to wage pressures and ultimately higher core inflation.”

In the nearer term, one of the most pressing issues facing the euro zone is Italy, where the populist administration is preparing a high-spending budget that could push it into a showdown with the European Union. The spread between Italian and German 10-year bonds rose on Thursday to a five-year high.

“The rhetoric is definitely worrying, but I think as central bankers we should always look at the facts and at concrete plans, and there are still no concrete budget plans,” Knot said. “We shouldn’t over-rush into panicky conclusions.”

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.