According to Eurostat's flash estimate, inflation was 10.0 per cent in November, slightly lower than the 10.6 per cent recorded in October. The decline resulted mainly from lower energy price inflation. Food price inflation and underlying price pressures across the economy have strengthened and will persist for some time. Amid exceptional uncertainty, Eurosystem staff have significantly revised up their inflation projections.
This special feature concludes that, while the banking industry has made substantial progress towards a more integrated retail payment market, committing itself to introducing SEPA instruments and procedures from January 2008 and to migrating a critical mass of its customer payments by end-2010, some issues, such as transparency and interoperability, still need to be finalised.