The volume of money market transactions has declined, but the money market still functions well. We were careful in preparing market participants well in advance that moving towards negative deposit rates was an option and explained how the system, if invoked, would work. Second, spill over, if any, to the retail rates of private banks has been very limited.
Unlike among regions of individual euro area countries and within the United States, inflation differentials across euro area countries seem relatively more persistent: from 1999 to 2003 Germany and Austria have been mostly below the average euro area inflation rate, whereas Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal mostly exceeded it. 5  ECB Monthly Bulletin April 2003 and own computations.