In the context of the strategy review, a question we should be asking ourselves is what changes to the conduct of monetary policy could help us achieve our objectives? Indeed, do we need to further clarify the objectives themselves? The Governing Council has, since 2003, interpreted its price stability mandate as in ation of ‘close to, but below, 2 per cent’.
This has led to speculation that the ECB might be more concerned about deviations above 2 per cent than deviations below 2 per cent (Paloviita 2018).14 In its Introductory Statement last July, the Governing Council said that it was “determined to act, in line with its commitment to symmetry in the in ation aim” (Draghi 2019).15 Nonetheless, it seems that there continues to be uncertainty about exactly what ‘close to, but below’ means.