This achievement owes much to the ECB’s institutional framework, which gives a clear mandate to the ECB to safeguard price stability in the euro area, and grants it full independence in doing so. Price stability is a necessary condition to sustainable economic growth, job creation and social cohesion.
Empirical evidence shows there is a negative relationship between inflation  BIS Review 63/2008  1  and output growth, with a 100-basis-point permanent increase in inflation being associated with a 10 to 30 basis-point decrease in trend output growth. 1 And central bank independence is key for monetary policy to be credibly and effectively geared to price stability.