The initial target range of 1 to 4 percent was often perceived as a range of indifference, which implied that inflation just outside the range would be viewed as qualitatively different from inflation just inside the range. As a consequence, inflation tended to stay near the upper border of the range.
Dissatisfaction with that outcome motivated the subsequent decision in mid-1997 to move to a framework with an explicit point objective of 2-1/2 percent, with deviations in either direction treated symmetrically.