Nor can a transparent target be easily manipulated to show success when there is in fact none. Our mandate is implemented by targeting an inflation rate, which is interpreted not as literal price stability (an inflation rate of 0%) but as a low and stable growth rate in the price level.
Our targeted inflation rate, set in consultation with government, is a range of inflation between 3 and 6% on an ongoing annual basis. In other words: we target a monthly, year-on-year inflation rate of not lower than 3% and not higher than 6%. In practice, we aim for inflation to come out near the middle of our target range, at around 4.5%.