Defining price stability as "a year-on-year increase in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices of below 2%", along with the emphasis on the medium term, was designed to enhance clarity, to anchor expectations and to provide a yardstick against which the new independent institution could be held accountable.
Likewise, the eclectic but systematic approach to the processing of information relevant for assessing risks to price stability, which we call our two-pillar strategy of monetary policy, was intended to guarantee that no piece of evidence relevant to policy decision-making would be excluded from the Governing Council's information set.