We have commonly observed across countries that economic contractions following the burst of a bubble tend to be protracted and subsequently, the economies hobble at an early phase of recovery. 2 In the aftermath of the two bubbles, namely, one in the U.S. late 2000s and the  2  2  See Reinhart and Reinhart (2010).
So temporary deviations from the euro area-wide inflation average should not be a matter of concern. Indeed, they constitute an important potential adjustment channel within a currency union where exchange rates are fixed. But inflation differentials can turn into a source of concern when they become large and persistent.