Immediate access to funds could be especially important for households on fixed incomes or living paycheck to paycheck, when waiting days for the funds to be available to pay a bill can mean overdraft fees or late fees that can compound. Similarly, for small businesses, getting immediate access to funds from a sale in order to pay for supplies can be a game-changer.
Nevertheless, across the board their primary objective was price stability – defined as a stabilisation of the inflation rate at around 2% across a horizon of approximately two years. Steering short-term interest rates was considered a sufficient means of achieving this target.