Euro area: This currency area is initially classified as loose inflation targeting, because the ECB insisted it had no target, only a definition of price stability, but from 2022 the ECB had a formal symmetric inflation target.
| Years | Targets and attainment | Classification |
| 1999-2021 | primary goal of price stability (definition revised and/or clarified 2003), inflation mostly a little above that definition, with wider divergences 2008 (above), 2009 (below), 2014-20 (below) and 2021 (above) but expectations remain largely anchored; exchange rate floating; reference value (not target) for money, initially reviewed each year but not after 2002, gradually downgraded; monetary policy operated via short term interest rates, also post-GFC large-scale refinancing operations, forward guidance, negative deposit rates 2014-22, but quantitative easing only 2014-18 and (Covid-19) 2020-22 | loose inflation targeting LIT |
| 2022-23 | 2021 review of monetary strategy leads to adoption of 2% formal symmetric target for inflation over the medium term (which allows some short term focus on employment and financial stability), plus plan to include owner occupied housing costs in HICP; 2022-23 rises in commodity prices (Ukraine war) with inflation well above target, but measures of long term inflation expectations remain anchored; quantitative tightening from early 2023 | full inflation targeting FIT |
Selected IMF references: SR 2006 pp17-24; SI 2009 ch. I; SR 2010 p33; SR 2012 pp10-18; SR 2014 pp9-11; SR 2017 p6; SR 2022 pp23-7; SR 2023 pp7-11, 24-7, 52; SR 2024 pp14-15, 20, 45.
Additional sources: ECB (1999, 2003, 2021).
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Monetary Policy Frameworks 