Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of replacing the Bank of England's two per cent inflation target with a two to three per cent inflation target averaged over the business cycle

A comprehensive Review of the Monetary Policy Framework was published in 2013, considering the benefits and costs of a number of different monetary policy frameworks. The current remit for the Monetary Policy Committee reflects the assessment set out in the Review, which includes retaining a flexible inflation targeting framework, with a 2 per cent symmetric inflation target, as measured by the 12 month change in the Consumer Prices Index. The remit also states that the MPC may allow inflation to deviate from this target temporarily in order not to cause undesirable volatility in output due to the short-term trade-offs involved.