Darvas, Z., (2013), “The euro area’s tightrope walk: debt and competitiveness in Italy and Spain”, www.bruegel.org, 3 September.
Competitiveness adjustment in struggling southern euro-area members requires persistently lower inflation than in major trading partners, but low inflation worsens public debt sustainability. When average euro-area inflation undershoots the two percent target, the conflict between intra-euro relative price adjustment and debt sustainability is more severe.