It is often said that credibility is easy to lose and nearly impossible to regain. The ECB, as a new central bank without a track record, had to gain it in the first place.
And this was not a one-year fluke. Last year was the fifth consecutive year that inflation, measured by the chain GDP price index, was 2.6% or lower and the 5-year compound annual inflation rate is now 2.5%, the lowest since 1967. The extraordinary achievement of 1996, of course, was reaching such low levels of unemployment and inflation at the same time.