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Finance & economics
财经板块
The European Central Bank
欧洲中央银行
Promises, promises
满口承诺
What the ECB's new target means in practice
欧洲央行的新目标究竟意味着什么
For most of its 23 years of life the European Central Bank (ECB) had the fuzzy inflation target of"below, but close to, 2%". No one knew what precisely that meant, but the consensus among economists was that the bank was aiming for inflation in the region of 1.7-1.9%. In any case stubbornly low inflation rendered the question almost academic. Average annual inflation in the euro area since 2013 has been just 0.9% compared with 1.9% in America, even though interest rates are below zero and the ECB has hoovered up government and corporate bonds for years in an attempt to gin up the economy.
欧洲中央银行(ECB)自成立已有23年，大部分时间里其模糊的通胀目标都“低于但接近2%”。没有人知道这究竟意味着什么，经济学家们则一致认为央行在试图将通胀率控制在1.7-1.9%。无论如何，长期的低通胀使得这一问题几乎成了一个学术问题。自2013年以来，虽然利率低于零，且欧洲央行多年来一直在吸收政府和公司债券试图刺激经济，但欧元区的年平均通胀率仅为0.9%，而美国则为1.9%。
The bank's struggle to attain its target has prompted some soul-searching. Last year Christine Lagarde, its president, launched a review of its strategy, which held "listening" events and pored over academic papers. Its conclusions were announced on July 8th. The bank plans eventually to incorporate the impact of climate change inits models and, potentially,to reflect climate considerations in its asset purchases. It also intends to pay attention to the cost of owning a house when it studies inflation (in contrast to practice in otherrich countries, this is notincluded in the euro area's measure of consumer prices). And it unveiled a new symmetric inflation target, of 2%.
该行为实现目标所做出的努力引发了一些人的反思。去年，其总裁克里斯蒂娜·拉加德启动了一项对其战略的评估，该评估举办了“倾听”活动，并研读了学术论文。其结论于7月8日公布。世行计划最终将气候变化的影响纳入其模型，并可能在其资产购买中反映气候因素。它还打算在研究通货膨胀时关注拥有一套房子的成本(与其他富裕国家的做法相反，该项没有包括在欧元区的消费价格指标中)。它还公布了一个新的对称通胀目标，即2%。
The greater clarity around the target is welcome, and might ward off concerns that the ECB will raise interest rates before an economic recovery takes firm hold, as it did in 2008 and 2011. Ms Lagarde noted on July 8th that the change won unanimous support from the bank's 25-strong governing council. But working out what it means for the ECB's monetary policy may prove more contentious.
人们希望欧洲央行能有更明确的目标，能够消除人们对将在经济复苏站稳脚跟前加息的担忧，就像它在2008年和2011年所做的那样。拉加德女士于7月8日指出，这一改变赢得了银行25人管理委员会的一致支持。但这对欧洲央行的货币政策来说意味着什么，可能会引发更多争议。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
