When have central banks been wrong?

We will analyse the behaviour of the Federal Reserve and the E C B . If these central banks have been wrong in preparing their growth or inflation forecasts, they subsequently had to correct an interest rate choice that proved to be erroneous. This has been seen since the late 1990s: As regards the Federal Reserve, in 1998-1999; As regards the E C B , in 1999, 2008 and 2011. As central banks’ errors in terms of forecasting and interest rate choices are quite frequent, it is not surprising that the Federal Reserve nowadays rapidly moves from announcements of rate hikes to the prospect of rate cuts.