Since the beginning of the inflation-targeting period, which started in 2000, our average annual inflation rate has been 5.5%, a full percentage point higher than the midpoint. This points to mixed success in the history of our inflation management. Inflation has stayed moderate, well below the high levels of the 1980s and 1990s.
But inflation has not really been sufficiently low to get our high long-term interest rates lower, and this creates an economic cost that weighs more heavily on job creation as time goes on.