*  *  Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis price stability in major advanced economies has been at risk. Central banks fought this risk with both conventional and unconventional measures, countering financial instability and its macroeconomic implications. More recently the ECB adopted, and then extended, an asset purchase programme.
Consumption should rise roughly in line with the projected moderate expansion of disposable income, but both upside and downside risks are present. According to various surveys, sentiment is decidedly upbeat. Consumers have enjoyed healthy gains in their real incomes along with the extraordinary stock-market driven rise in their financial wealth over the last couple of years.