Announcing the strategy has permitted the ECB to make clear its commitment to the price stability objective. The strategy has also provided a framework in which to organise and present to the public the information used in policy deliberations. The 2003 review of the strategy: confirmation and clarification In December 2002 the ECB announced its decision to conduct a comprehensive review of its strategy.
This decision was sometimes wrongly interpreted by observers as an implicit indication of dissatisfaction with the experience thus far. In fact, the opposite was true. It was natural that, after more than four years of experience, the Governing Council of the ECB wanted to look back and reflect in a systematic way on the experience gained and the comments of external observers.