Per Jansson: Some thoughts on the need for changes to inflation targeting

Speech by Mr Per Jansson, Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at Handelsbanken, Stockholm, 16 December 2020.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
16 December 2020

The slides for the speech can be found on the Sveriges Riksbanks' website.

We are living in dramatic times. Imagine us looking back on the current situation in ten years' time. What will we remember? The coronavirus, most definitely. Regarding the climate, we will perhaps still be talking about the devastating fires in Australia and California, unless they have been overshadowed by new, even greater, climate-related disasters.

My own area of profession, monetary policy and financial stability, is obviously far less dramatic than worldwide epidemics and climate-change effects, but it also affects people's lives to a high degree. As regards monetary policy, I suspect we may look back on the current situation as a sort of cut-off point or watershed. The international discussion on how monetary policy should best be designed is being brought to a head and the next few years will show which path governments, parliaments and central banks will choose to go down.