But in addition to these purely economic improvements, the system now fulfilled the requirement of accountability. Everyone could see whether the central bank had achieved its agreed objective or not. I mention this because it is often forgotten that the origin of inflation targeting was the desire for accountability.
When the economic reformers in New Zealand under Roger Douglas came into power they recognised that no arm of their government had a quantifiable objective by which it could be judged. They then began the process of setting out objectives for each department, agency and authority.