If shocks in the euro zone become asymmetric, the common monetary policy will have a higher cost

We know that for the cost of the common monetary policy to be low in the euro zone there must be no asymmetric shocks affecting euro-zone countries, which means in particular that economic cycles, inflation rates and credit growth in these countries must be similar. We analyse changes in the dispersion of economic cycles, inflation rates and private-sector credit growth rates in euro-zone countries. We find that dispersion is stable for growth rates, declining for inflation rates and declining slightly for credit growth: there has been no exacerbation of the cyclical heterogeneity of euro-zone countries.