Table 2: Inflation Targets Country Target adopted Current target New Zealand March 1990 0-3% Canada February 1991 1-3% United Kingdom October 1992 2½% Sweden January 1993 1-3% Finland February 1993 2% Australia 1993 2-3% Spain Summer 1994 0-3% Source: BIS 1996 Annual Report, updated to incorporate recent changes to targets in the United Kingdom and New Zealand  The move to inflation targeting completed a significant conceptual leap from the regimes that had prevailed in the earlier decades.
Instead of a focus on intermediate objectives, like the exchange rate or the money supply, the operational framework of policy was now built around a final objective, inflation. In describing inflation as the final objective in this context, I should make clear that inflation control is viewed as a means to an end rather than an end in itself.