Why set a public inflation target? Paul Volcker, the Fed chair at the time, began aggressively raising interest rates and succeeded in curbing inflation, but the interest rate hikes triggered unforeseen consequences. When Alan Greenspan assumed the role of Fed chair in 1987, he commissioned a series of debates at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) about setting an exact inflation target. By 1993, Australia, Canada, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, and the United Kingdom had joined it in adopting an official inflation target. “Completely abandoning an inflation target in the middle of a battle against high inflation might do the opposite, thus raising people’s long-term inflation expectations.”