The ECB staff projections from September 2007 see growth ranging from 2.2% to 2.8% in 2007 and from 1.8% to 2.8% in 2008, even though risks are tilted to the downside. In a particularly welcome development, unemployment has declined significantly, from 9% in 1999 to 6.9% (July 2007). 12 million new jobs have been created since 1999.
However, international evidence suggests that, once the objective embodies a quantitative announcement, its use in the form of a point or a range for admissible inflation rates makes no appreciable difference for firmly anchoring long-term inflation expectations.