Even when the law is followed to the letter, appeals to legal authority guide only a few of the day-to-day decisions required of business and financial managers. The rest are governed by whatever personal code of values that market participants bring to the table. Commerce is inhibited if we cannot trust the reliability of counterparties' commitments.
These relate in particular to fears of a rise in protectionist pressures, the possibility of further increases in oil prices, concerns about possible disorderly developments owing to global imbalances and potential shifts in financial market sentiment. As regards price developments, as reflected in Eurostat’s flash estimate, annual HICP inflation was 1.9% in June 2007, unchanged from previous months.