The production of goods and services continues to be reallocated from the developed countries to the emerging countries in order to take advantage of lower labour costs. In the fifteen countries of the European Union, between 1980 and 2001 the manufacturing sector’s contribution to total value added declined from 24 to 20 per cent.
To avoid “ex-post insurance of risky behaviour” – and to avoid negative implications for price stability, too – it is predominantly important to make clear that changes in the monetary policy stance are justified only when there is a risk to the primary mandate of the central bank, i.e. price stability.