What is more – disregarding the most recent countries to join the euro area – dispersion both ahead of the crisis and during the crisis was very similar in the euro area and the United States. At the same time, it is worth noting that both currency areas include regions with persistently above or below average growth of unit labour costs.
Again leaving aside the most recent countries to join the euro area, here, Greece, Portugal and Ireland, in particular, have lost  BIS central bankers’ speeches  9  competitiveness vis-à-vis their main trading partners in the euro area. Germany, in contrast, has been able to lower relative unit labour costs over the same period.