It is hardly surprising that there might well be some disagreement about the appropriate monetary policy response to this conflicting mix of information. As we go forward together on the Committee, I see no reason to revisit the decisions of August 2011. The Committee has included what I regard as a two-year conditional commitment in its statement.
I believe that undoing this commitment in the near term would undercut the ability of the Committee to offer similar conditional commitments in the future – and this ability has certainly proved very useful in the past three years. So, I plan to abide by the August 2011 commitment in thinking about my own future decisions.