On the right-hand side, you can see the same measure together with the HICP for energy and unprocessed food. From this chart it is clear that stability works in both directions. For example, the index barely moved when energy and food prices dropped sharply in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and it hardly moved when they rose markedly towards the end of 2016.
Such broad signs of anchoring – going beyond professional forecasters and financial markets – 11 / 13  BIS central bankers' speeches  would also be consistent with empirical evidence that confirms that announcing an official inflation aim has contributed to reducing costly inflation persistence in a large group of developed and emerging economies, including the euro area.19 In other words, even though households continue to take current inflation into account when forming their expectations, the success of central banks in bringing inflation down to low and stable levels might have contributed to cutting the tails in the distribution of future expected inflation.20 Such effects may have thereby helped to offset, at least partially, the consequences of other secular forces that have tended to make inflation more persistent.21  Conclusion Stable inflation expectations play a crucial role for the effectiveness of monetary policy.