Its language about symmetry is pretty clear, at least as central banking communications go: “the Bank is equally concerned about inflation rising above or falling below the target and will act ... in order to bring inflation down, or to push it back up, to 2 per cent.” 1 In my view, the FOMC should use similar language to characterize its inflation objective.
For experts’ and markets’ inflation expectations, data from the Consensus Forecasts, the QUICK Survey, and the inflation swap rate are used as indicated by their respective lines. Sources: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, ”Consumer Price Index”; Consensus Economics Inc., “Consensus Forecasts”; QUICK, "QUICK Monthly Market Survey (Bonds)"; Bloomberg; Bank of Japan.