However, corporates should seize the opportunities, which are better now than in the past, provided by the ample liquidity available to investors in the capital markets, to bridge the gap vis-à-vis firms of the other main European economies.
True, various measures of longer-term inflation expectations derived from financial markets and from expert surveys largely stand at around 2%. But initial signs of above-target revisions in those measures have to be monitored closely. We are worried about the high rate of inflation in the euro area, which has repeatedly surprised professional forecasters.