The Monetary Policy Strategy of the European Central Bank

Philip R. LANE * Membre du directoire, Banque centrale européenne (BCE). Contact: office.lane@ecb.europa.eu.Les opinions exprimées dans cet article sont personnelles. L'exercice de revue de la stratégie de politique monétaire a bénéficié du dévouement et de l'expertise d'un grand nombre de professionnels de la BCE et de l'Eurosystème, ainsi que des contributions de nombreux universitaires et autres observateurs extérieurs. Merci à Fabian Eser et Christophe Kamps pour leurs commentaires et à Janina Desoi pour son aide dans la préparation de cet article.

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.