In this case, a forceful, frontloaded monetary policy response to weak or excess inflation may become necessary to signal the central bank’s commitment to its objective, and thus nudge inflation expectations towards that objective and make them less backward-looking.12 For example, when confronted with the risk of a disanchoring of inflation expectations and a too prolonged period of low inflation, the Governing Council stated in May 2014 that it would “act swiftly” and was “unanimous in its commitment to using also unconventional instruments within its mandate” as needed.
This was followed a month later by the announcement of the battery of non-standard measures I already mentioned. In addition, in late 2015, we signalled our determination to bring inflation back to our policy aim “without undue delay”, which justified an aggressive recalibration of stimulus at that time. Let me now turn to some concrete examples of a gradual approach.