In the twelve years of the euro, annual inflation in the area has averaged just under 2 per cent, fully in line with the definition of price stability adopted by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB).
It has fallen by more than one half compared with the previous two decades; the reduction was greater than that seen in the United States in the same period. In Italy, the average annual increase in consumer prices  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  was five percentage points lower than in the twenty-year period preceding the introduction of the euro.