Furthermore, the historical experience of central banks in Europe and beyond demonstrates that it is important for the success of monetary policy to carry out a thorough analysis of monetary aggregates and the information they contain. The Governing Council of the ECB has announced a quantitative reference value for the annual growth of the broad monetary aggregate M3.
Substantial or prolonged deviations of current monetary growth from the reference value should, under normal circumstances, signal risks to price stability in the medium term. The choice of M3 as an aggregate is supported by empirical evidence regarding the long-run stability and leading indicator properties of this aggregate.