And a medium-term-oriented approach, in turn, helps one to respond that little bit earlier to threats to the value of money, and not to attach undue importance to short-term factors. Moreover, given an independent central bank, political developments do not exercise a direct impact on confidence in the currency.
Consider, for instance, the resignation of the EC Commission two weeks ago, which did not really affect the financial markets. That would very likely have been quite different if the currency had been closer to day-to-day politics. Third, a durably sound fiscal policy contributes materially to safeguarding stable prices and the longer-term room for manœuvre.