The two pillars of the ECB’s monetary policy strategy provide a framework for organising the large body of economic information available to policymakers in a manner that helps the Governing Council of the ECB to take appropriate policy decisions in order to maintain price stability. They are not distinct targets in themselves. In my view, a diversified, multi-pillar framework of analysis offers great advantages.
Let me try briefly to explain what they are. Monetary policy is always conducted in an uncertain environment. This reflects not only the inevitable uncertainty related to the inherent partial predictability of economic phenomena, which becomes manifest in the form of shocks that cannot be predicted in advance.