These deflationary forces have been so aggressive that they have caused inflation to remain at, or more recently below, Central Bank targets, mostly set at about 2% over the decades from 1990 onwards. Even massively expansionary monetary policies and fiscal policies which have resulted in the largest and most persistent rise in public sector debt ratios ever during periods of general peacetime (apart from Germany—see Table 1.3 and Diagram 1.4) have had little success in reflating the global economy.
