At the ECB we have developed a forward-looking wage tracker, which has anticipated the first-quarter number pretty well. We have detailed country data, details about private sector versus public sector, the nature of one-off payments, etc. It is also important to take into account that wage contracts are often multi-period. We can extract what was paid according to these contracts in the first quarter, but also what will be paid later in the year, into next year, and so on.

Looking at the full detail, the overall direction of wages still points to deceleration, which is essential. Deceleration does not necessarily mean an immediate return to steady state. This year the adjustment is clearly quite gradual. In our…