Indeed, while oil prices more than quadrupled over that period, measures of underlying inflation remained close to 2 percent. In my view, that outcome was crucially dependent on the stability of longer-run inflation expectations, which in turn limited the pass-through of higher production costs to consumer prices.
Another reason is that the global slowdown in trade weighed on the most important channels of monetary union benefits. A third reason is that our domestic policies have not always been optimal: the reform momentum stalled and long-term growth was not always a priority. Certainly some of our panellists will be exploring these aspects further.