Explicit emphasis on price stability often came with certain legislative changes in central banks and emphasis on fiscal rules in many countries. Although central banks were cognisant of the importance of financial stability for conduct of monetary policy, a distinction between monetary policy and financial stability policy was generally maintained.
The current global crisis seems to have undermined the view that monetary policy should only have a single objective of price stability. The pre-crisis view, also called the “Jackson Hole Consensus”, was that central banks should respond to asset prices and financial imbalances only to the extent that they affect the shorter term inflation forecast.