In the The Australian Financial Review's most recent quarterly survey, economists expressed their usual diversity of opinion on whether the Reserve Bank's inflation target should be changed and, if so, what should replace it. What’s at stake here?

One view is that the target should be lowered so that it corresponds with the current rate of inflation. Isn’t it cheating to shift the target so that it fits the outcome? Not quite. If it was clear that the current target was unachievable, then it would make sense to change it. That would, at least, take the pressure off the RBA to push interest rates down still further in futile pursuit of an impossible objective.