3  As it turned out, instead of declining by more than 50 per cent as expected at the end of September, gas prices increased by almost 100 per cent, averaging an unprecedented level of € during the summer of 2022. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had transformed a temporary shock into a persistent one, warranting an acceleration of the monetary normalisation.
In the early part of 2022, in fact, the process gained speed. However, we managed to avoid the potentially dangerous cliff-effects of too sharp a swing in our stance, not least in view of the major uncertainty caused by the conflict in Ukraine.