On the other hand the European stock market landscape is still distinctly fragmented with a large number of market models, trading and settlement systems, despite the cooperation and merger activities which have been initiated. Furthermore, businesses and consumers continue to be denied cross-border access to financial institutions.
Inflation for these services, most of which are labor intensive, has remained stubbornly high. An important source of inflation pressures in this category has likely been the shortage of workers, which has pushed up labor costs at rates above those consistent with 2 percent inflation.