And the level of public debt no  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  longer appears to have influenced inflation levels over the past few decades, at least in the industrial countries. Yet to conclude from this that an independent monetary policy alone is a sufficient condition for stable money would, in my view, be premature, if not to say naive.
For if a sovereign runs up so much debt that the burden soon becomes unsustainable, the central bank comes under much greater pressure. This can raise concerns as to whether the central bank is truly independent and can undermine its credibility – even if it has not yet actually changed its monetary policy course.