Economics focus

摘要

Last week, for the first time, America's Federal Reserve published its forecast of inflation over the next two years. Many observers took this as a sign that the Fed had moved closer to setting an inflation target, as many other central banks have done. The minutes of the Fed's February meeting, published this week, confirmed that its policymakers have discussed the idea. Advocates of targeting argue that it would increase the transparency of America's monetary policy and maintain its credibility after Alan Greenspan retires as Fed chairman in 11 months' time. But at which measure of inflation should the Fed take aim? It is widely agreed that central banks' prime goal should be price stability. Judged by existing consumer-price indices, central banks have indeed tamed inflation. But there are important things that such indices ignore-homes and shares, for instance. And the prices of these have been rising fast in many countries. Central banks should worry about those as well.