The effect of unusual weather conditions on exports meant that GDP as measured exaggerates both the strength in the March quarter and the weakness in the June quarter. There are still some puzzles in reconciling what has happened to real GDP with what has happened to employment and indications from business surveys. Hopefully, those puzzles will be resolved over time.
These institutional provisions reflect the key insights gained by academic research and policy experience over the past decades that price stability is a necessary condition for sustainable growth and job creation and that monetary policy decisions are best placed in the hands of an independent central bank. Central bank independence is key for monetary policy to be credibly and effectively geared to price stability.