Finally, when one speaks about maintaining price stability “in the medium term”, this means that one acknowledges the existence of short term price volatility, due to non-monetary influences and that monetary policy must be oriented towards the future (“forward looking”).
*  *  *  To reach its target and to assess the risks weighing on price stability in a founded manner, the ECB carries out its analyses according to two separate, but complementary, analytical approaches. These are called the two pillars of the strategy.