Indeed, in the statute of the recently established European Central Bank price stability is clearly stated as the primary objective of the bank, and it is made clear that support of the general economic policies in the Community is only a secondary objective. In the USA, price stability enters the objectives for monetary policy, which most other OECD-countries are using inflation targeting strategies. 2.
Exchange-rate developments  Before the creation of the European Monetary Union, most of the EU member states participated in the European Monetary System - a fixed-exchange-rate system based on a grid of bilateral central parities and intervention bands.