The Monetary Policy Strategy of the European Central Bank
This article outlines the main features of the new monetary policy strategy of the European Central Bank (ECB). Under this strategy, the ECB is focused on stabilising inflation at 2% over the medium term. It takes a symmetric perspective on deviations from this target: overshoots and shortfalls are viewed as equally undesirable. At the same time, the strategy fully takes into account the implications of the effective lower bound: since there is an effective floor to policy rates, it is strategically necessary to also deploy interest rate forward guidance, asset purchases and targeted long-term refinancing operations to ensure that the inflation target is achieved. The new strategy also seeks to incorporate the implications of climate change and the carbon transition for macroeconomic and inflation developments.