Consumer price inflation has recently reached high levels (3.2 per cent in annual terms last October), prompted mostly – as in the euro area as a whole – by factors that we assess as transient, notably the surge in commodity prices, which may continue in the coming months but is not expected to extend into the medium term.
So far, the recent contractual agreements do not suggest any strong upturn in wage growth, in a context where margins of spare capacity in the labour market are still ample.