The fact that these considerations are now included in the Act and not just mentioned in the preparatory work emphasises the importance the Government and Riksdag attach to them. This makes it even more important for the Riksbank to show that these considerations are included in the monetary policy deliberations and how they are  2/10  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  included. We may thus need to be even clearer about it in our decisions and in the documentation for the decisions. But this will not entail any revolutionary changes in monetary policy, nor was the legislator expecting there to be, judging by the preparatory work for the new act. The Riksbank has already previously conducted what is known as flexible inflation targeting, which includes taking into account the real economy. In principle, it is now being legislated that the Riksbank shall conduct monetary policy in this way. More focus on motives for decisions and on evaluation In the new Act, the Riksdag has wanted to clarify the boundaries of the objectives and powers within the Riksbank's various areas of responsibility in relation to one another. Among other things, this means that we will need to be clearer in stating the purpose of various measures, that is, which of the Riksbank's objectives we are trying to achieve and which tasks we want to resolve with various measures.
It is the Riksbank's task to stabilise inflation around 2 per cent and we have assessed that it is better to act with monetary policy than to wait and see and risk being surprised by continued high inflation that requires even greater tightening later on. 5/10  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  Inflation thus needs to fall clearly this year, and it is important that underlying inflation also falls. We assessed in February that the interest rate needed to be raised and that we will probably need to raise it in April as well. As usual, it is the outlook for the economy and inflation that is decisive for monetary policy, and we are well aware that it takes time for the Riksbank's policy rate increases to have a full impact on the economy. As it is difficult to know how quickly the impact will be and how great the effects of the increases will be on the real economy and inflation, it is still important to follow new outcomes and new indicators to obtain a picture of inflation prospects. Inflation has already started to decline in some countries, but as we noted in February, we see few signs that underlying inflation has started to decline in Sweden. Nor has this picture been changed by the new information on inflation that has come in since our decision. On the contrary. In February, inflation excluding energy prices rose and the outcome was significantly above our latest assessment.