An ECB study 4 shows that this paradox is explained by the fact that the impact of the ECB’s inflation objective on the evolution of inflation outweighs the influence of past shocks and thus at least partly compensates for the added inertia resulting from a more rigid economic structure.
In other words, when the economy adopts the central bank’s objective, the inflation process becomes less persistent and more forward-looking. All economic agents anticipate that the central bank will eventually bring inflation back to its pre-shock level and treat past inflationary shocks as transitory and inconsequential for the future.