Social partners in Europe seem to have understood this, as inflationary pressure coming from labour costs has been much lower in recent years than in previous decades. This, in turn, has led to significant employment gains in Europe, now amounting to 14.9 million new jobs created since the euro was introduced, compared with only 3 million jobs in the 8½ years before its launch.
This gives us hope that the structural reforms which have been implemented in recent years have helped to create jobs. But we cannot simply assume that these trends will continue. Therefore, the pursuit of price stability will remain a demanding task.