In the long run, however, retrenching rigidities on product and labour markets is expected to increase an economy’s capacity to adjust efficiently to shocks and thus to reduce the probability of enduring inflation differentials. IV. Conclusions  I think my quick tour through the topics of inflation persistence and inflation dispersion has shown that there are still many open questions left.
We still do not know enough about the factors that determine inflation persistence in the euro area; we cannot even be sure about the prevailing degree of inflation persistence. I am therefore very much looking forward to the presentation of the results of the IPN in 2005. Almost the same applies to the issue of inflation dispersion.