This Isn’t a Boring Hold

September’s decision to hold rates steady reflects shared confidence that inflation is behaving as desired. We remain in a good place. This stance allows us to safeguard the necessary stability in an increasingly volatile global environment.

With financial markets acting as a key source of potential shocks and the fallout of fiscal consolidation presenting varied outcomes, our aim is to foster a sense of calm and clarity.

I’m convinced we’re doing exactly that.

We’ve accomplished bringing rates into a comfortable, neutral territory. But make no mistake, being in a good place today does not mean we’ll idly observe the world passing us by.

While we have seen real progress in taming inflation, particularly with more persistent components coming down, vigilance remains essential.

The path to achieving our inflation target has been uneven, and we must remain vigilant in addressing lingering risks. This includes upside inflation risks. Neglecting them would be a mistake.

We will decide meeting by meeting, relying on all the data, outlook, and projections we receive to ensure we stay in a good place, as always.

I see no need to overthink or overengineer the situation.

We need to stay away from moving on small, tiny deviations from the target because we know they will come. We need to stay focused on what’s beyond these temporary wobbles.

Rest assured that we are prepared to respond and face whatever comes next. That’s the beauty of the flexibility we retain.

With so many shocks affecting our economies, our aim should be to be a pillar of stability,

That being said, monetary policy must remain nimble.

We should not, and we will not, pre-commit to any future decisions. Instead, we must keep all our options open and be ready to adapt as new evidence arrives.

By refraining from engineering surprises to achieve minor shifts in the yield curve, we ensure we are well-positioned to respond to any new shocks that may emerge.

We are free, with our hands fully untied, to do whatever is necessary to preserve stability.