Let me share with you some findings from our analysis that we started some months ago and begin with inflation.13 Before the crisis, the dispersion of HICP inflation in euro area countries had remained broadly stable since the late 1990s, at a level similar to the 14 US Metropolitan Statistical Areas.14 During the crisis we saw a temporary increase in inflation dispersion in the euro area but this has been reversed over the past 12 months.
The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) recently found that, as of September 2012, only two countries were fully compliant with its recommendation on the macroprudential mandate of national authorities, suggesting that the answers to the previous questions are at best unclear.