Between May and December of last year the average monthly rate of inflation on an annual basis was close to 2 per cent. The survey of consumer price expectations carried out last September indicated a rate of inflation of between 3 and 3.5 per cent in the first quarter of 1997.
Bank lending to euro area non-financial corporations and bank credit standards Annual percentage changes; weighted index  Sources: ECB (BSI statistics, Bank Lending Survey) and ECB calculations. The sovereign-bank-corporate nexus – this time is different But the nature of these interdependencies differs fundamentally from previous crises.