Co-working spaces aren’t just about convenience – they bring a whole range of benefits for employees and communities

Master1305/ShutterstockWhen you think of co-working spaces – where workers from different industries come together to share a convenient workplace – you might picture a group of young freelancers hunched over laptops. But today’s co-working spaces have evolved into something more powerful – particularly in a world still reshuffling office work practices in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

Long-term inflation expectations of consumers: an overview

This box explores the newly available five-year-ahead inflation expectations collected in the ECB Consumer Expectations Survey (CES). While consumers’ beliefs about longer-term inflation expectations are characterised by substantial heterogeneity and dispersion, the median five-year-ahead expectations have been close to the ECB's 2% inflation target since September 2024. This relative stability contrasts with more variable one-year and three-year expectations, which have been more sensitive to actual changes in inflation.

Why monetary policy should crack down harder during high inflation

The recent surge in inflation has led to a significant increase in the frequency of price changes, making prices more flexible. Conventional models assume a constant price change frequency, but in state-dependent models the frequency varies with economic conditions. Price flexibility has an impact on the effectiveness of monetary policy. In high inflation periods, frequent price changes make monetary policy more effective in reducing inflation with less impact on economic activity. Therefore, monetary policy should be more aggressive during such periods to stabilise prices efficiently.

Pages

Subscribe to Front page feed