“Inflation Expectations and Inflation Forecasting,” speech delivered at the Monetary Economics Workshop of the National Bureau of Economic Research Summer Institute, Cambridge, Mass., July 10, https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20070710a.htm. Blinder, Alan S., and Ricardo Reis (2005).
GDP growth and inflation (as measured by changes in CPI) are two of the most important indicators that are closely watched. They do have both economic and political significance, as they have become the standard tools for assessing performance.