Introduction The financial crisis has brought to the fore a number of issues. It has been severe and widespread, and has affected many economies in different and long-lasting ways. Maintaining financial stability has once again become a major concern of policy makers; central banks are being heavily involved in this endeavour.
We are aware of the fact that an assessment of the risk of a de-anchoring of expectations from the inflation aim based exclusively on their current level would be dangerous. Given that economic theory and historical experience show that a de-anchoring could occur abruptly and in a non-linear way, it is crucial to consider carefully the risk that long‑term inflation expectations could rise suddenly.