This was due to our medium-term orientation of monetary policy which is aimed at providing a stable anchor for economic agents. Indeed, the best contribution of monetary policy to economic growth is when inflation and inflation expectations are firmly anchored at price stability. One way of measuring our success in providing this long-term anchor is to study long-term market expectations for inflation.
Cooperative credit groups To enable cooperative credit banks to continue to perform their critical role of financing small and medium-sized enterprises prudently and effectively, in 2016, the legislature chose to encourage the creation of banking groups that would bring together small banks throughout Italy.