Although inflation differentials in the euro area have not widened, they have exhibited a relatively-high degree of persistence, higher than that experienced across the 14 metropolitan statistical areas of the United States. Seven of the 12 euro-area economies have recorded annual inflation rates that have remained either persistently above or persistently below the euro-area average since 1999.
BIS Review 84/1997  -3-  With the economy gathering momentum, the challenge for monetary policy in the period ahead will be to encourage monetary conditions that preserve Canada’s good inflation performance, because low inflation is a prerequisite for a durable economic expansion.