However, the ongoing integration of financial markets in the euro area as well as increasing competition amongst intermediaries are likely to bring about greater liquidity, lower transaction costs and the development of a wider array of financial products. As this process develops, the international use of the euro is likely also to benefit from it.
In fact, the dispersion of many of the key indicators is similar. Let me start off with the inflation indicator. Before the crisis, the dispersion of HICP inflation in euro area countries had remained broadly stable since the late 1990s, at a level similar to the 14 US Metropolitan Statistical Areas.