Coupled with the fact that more or less all financially sound euro area credit institutions are able to participate in the Eurosystem’s refinancing operations, this has significantly eased banks’ balance sheet constraints, helped to bring down money market rates and, most importantly, prevented the  2  BIS Review 81/2009  emergence of a systemic crisis.
Services consumption has also recovered, partly because demand that was suppressed during the pandemic has materialized as the economy reopens. Therefore, private consumption overall has increased (Chart 1). That said, the effects of price rises have been observed. For instance, regarding consumption of items such as daily necessities, demand seems to have shifted to lower-priced goods and affordable private brand products.