In this context, it is the belief of the Governing Council that features that enforce wage rigidity and lead to non-optimal wage setting, in particular, general indexation of nominal wages to the consumer price index, should be avoided. This is particularly relevant today: second-round effects stemming from the impact of higher energy and food prices on wage and price-setting behaviour must be avoided.
This is of key importance for preserving price stability in the medium term and, in turn, the purchasing  6  Since the start of EMU, the number of employed people has increased by more than 15 million in the euro area, compared with an increase of approximately 5 million in the nine preceding years, and the euro area unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since the early 1980s.