If monetary policy does have credibility, longer-term expectations should not be impacted by shocks that affect short-term expectations. The Bank uses a number of sources for trying to assess expectations. The broadest is the inflation expectations survey conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research, or BER, on a quarterly basis.
It surveys analysts, business people, and trade unionists, asking what their inflation expectations are for the current year and for the next two years. Since mid-2011, respondents have also been asked to give their expectations of inflation in five years’ time. Household expectations are also polled, but only for the current year.