While this trend could be, in part, due to sluggish global economic activity and idiosyncratic business performance and environment, there is some evidence of lack of financial discipline on the part of some individuals and poor management practices by some businesses.
However, since the introduction of the euro, inflation expectations – notably average long term expectations as measured for example by Consensus Economic Forecast or the Survey of Professional Forecasters- are firmly anchored at a level consistent with the Eurosystem’s quantified inflation objective of below but close to 2%.