The Wall Street Journal’s Daily Report on Global Central Banks for Thursday, May 21, 2015:

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Central bankers around the developed world have agreed for much of the past two decades that 2% is a good objective for inflation. They want inflation to be low and stable, but they don’t want it too low. Interest rates move in line with inflation, and they don’t want inflation so low that interest rates are near zero. Then they would have no room to cut rates in a downturn to stimulate economic growth. Thus they have gravitated to 2%, a number born out of pragmatism more than any econometric model or proof.