Price Level Convergence Before and After the Advent of EMU

This article explores the convergence in consumer prices for groups of countries within the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and for selected non-EU countries, using detailed product-level data for 35 goods and services. It also analyzes the price gap between Austria and its major trading partners Germany and Italy. Within the euro area (the 11 founder members), price level convergence has been found to have occurred primarily in the run-up to the launch of euro banknotes and coins. Only in the case of consumer goods, such as personal transport equipment, clothing and footwear, and audio-visual, photographic and information processing equipment, did price levels continue to converge across the euro area countries also after the cash changeover. Compared with the other groups of countries reviewed here, food and services price levels converged to a much lesser extent or not at all in the euro area. However, during the whole period considered the variation in consumer prices was lowest in the euro area. Price level comparisons carried out between Austria and Germany/Italy revealed convergence in the case of both consumer goods and services, except for food prices. The latter is likely to have been due primarily to structural changes in retail trade: while in many sectors the trend decline in labor costs and profit margins and moderate deregulation may have contributed to price convergence between Austria and its trading partners, the Austrian food sector has displayed a trend toward rising labor costs. Another driver of food price differences is the VAT applied to food products, which is higher in Austria than in Germany or Italy.