Most notably, inflation exceeded the 2% target for four consecutive years, even though the bank consistently forecast that it would return to target in 18-24 months. The central bank took no action to bring inflation back down during that time, on the understandable grounds that tightening policy would cause considerable economic damage. Still, it is hard to describe something as a “target” in such circumstances. Were a husband to tell his wife that he had a target of being faithful, had failed to meet it over the previous four years, but hoped to do so over the following two, the marriage would be pretty short-lived.