2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  path would do a disservice to Europe. After all, the euro area is not an island but a region competing with the USA, Japan or China. What is more, fixing one’s sights on a greater contribution by Germany overlooks the reality of the situation.
However, once oil and import prices stop falling, the downward pressure on domestic inflation from those sources should wane, and as the labor market strengthens further, inflation is expected to rise gradually to 2 percent over the medium term. In light of the current shortfall of inflation from 2 percent, the Committee is carefully monitoring actual and expected progress toward its inflation goal.