It took a while, but the European Central Bank has finally shifted its official communication on inflation from the broad denial of the summer months towards a much more balanced assessment. The official communication after today’s ECB meeting, in the introductory statement and the Q&A session, underlined this more balanced assessment, explicitly presenting a good analysis of the (mainly temporary) factors currently driving inflation. Even though the ECB admitted that its previous forecast on when inflation would come down again had been too optimistic, the overall view that the current inflation spur is ... (full story)