The upswing is becoming increasingly solid, and continues to broaden across sectors and countries. Real GDP in the euro area has expanded for 16 consecutive quarters, growing by 1.7% year-on-year during the first quarter of 2017, according to Eurostat’s flash estimate.
In the post global financial crisis (GFC) period and, particularly, after  the taper tantrum episode of 2013, the credibility of the MI framework came into question as persistently high inflation and tepid growth began to co-exist. The MI approach with its focus on a large set of indicators did not provide a clearly defined nominal anchor for monetary policy.