Globally, cheaper access to more information has eased the integration and coordination of geographically diverse production processes. This development has opened up opportunities to transfer production to locations in which the work can be accomplished  1  The views are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of other members of the Federal Open Market Committee or the Board.
Today, I will not try to comprehensively review each and every of these important achievements. I would rather like to highlight one of them: the truly impressive process of inflation convergence in the euro area. In this context, I shall address the issue of inflation differentials within the area, in particular their size and recent evolution. I shall then focus on two particular issues.