What the debate on competitive devaluations illustrates above all is that political pressures on central banks have risen recently. Attempts by politicians to influence monetary policy are nothing new. What is new, however, is the impression that the classic trade-off between price stability and other economic policy objectives may have vanished for good against the background of low inflation.
In principle, both monetary and fiscal policy might strive to stimulate the economy. Some observers thus claim that monetary policy and fiscal policy should act in concert and that central bankers should bow to politicians. They evidently believe that central bank independence is superfluous in this day and age.