10 The anticipations of economic agents, whether consumers or businessmen, play a central role in the decisions they make, but their measurement is far from straightforward. 11 Unsurprisingly, household expectations have been a recurrent topic in the Survey.
This is particularly important in times like these, when inflation is well below target and unemployment is high. Our policy interest rate is the overnight rate. It is our main policy tool in normal times. The overnight rate has a direct impact on the cost of borrowing over very short terms.