Thank you for asking that. It is quite important.
We have a clear mandate. I think one of the strengths of our system is that Paul Jenkins, I myself, and the Governor in Council have a very clear mandate in terms of inflation. It is total consumer price inflation, it's 2% per annum, and we're measured against that mandate. I'm pleased to say--I had nothing to with this--my predecessors hit that mandate bang on over 15 years--2.0% average inflation over that period.
The advantage of it being symmetric is, first, its clarity; people can understand it. You can write a contract, whether it's a wage contract, a business contract, whether you're buying a financial asset or other, you can count on 2%. It's not as if we're aiming for 2% but we'd really like to get down to 1%. We'll be absolutely clear, we plan to get 2%.
The second thing is that in extreme situations--and many of us will remember the deflation scare of a few years ago--it's the absence of that symmetry that can create a self-fulfilling prophecy or self-fulfilling activity. It fortunately did not happen. It was a strong action by some foreign central banks to avoid that, but it runs a greater risk. However, if it's absolutely clear what you're shooting for, people take action over the whole course of their time, not when things drift farther and farther away from the target.