As for prices, the year-on-year rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) for all items excluding fresh food had been around 0 percent from around 2003, but from around the end of 2007 it rose at a rapid pace, especially in petroleum products and food, due to the surge in commodity prices, and reached 2.4 percent this summer.
Our definitions were as follows: “A central bank has goal independence when it is free to set the final goals of monetary policy. . . . A bank that has instrument independence is free to choose the means by which it seeks to achieve its goals.” 3 In May 1997, the Bank of England achieved instrument independence--something the Federal Reserve has long had.