Over time, this helps to ensure that our forecasts are as robust as possible and form a solid basis for monetary policy decisions, minimising potentially costly forecast errors and supporting good policy outcomes. Testing is an integral part of robust analysis.
As Nate Silver puts it, "The more eagerly we commit to scrutinising and testing our theories, the more readily we accept that our knowledge of the world is uncertain, the more willingly we acknowledge that perfect prediction is impossible, the less we will live in fear of our failures, and the more freedom we will have to let our minds flow freely."