Now, however, that wisdom is being questioned, not just in Britain. As long as inflation is a real and present danger, it makes sense to put monetary policy down to the conservative central bankers and keep them from the government's fiscal deficit. Instead, the problem today is the opposite: that the central bank cannot raise inflation to its target. Historical costs differ from current values 1. Industrial age But even at its lowest point, interest rates were just 0.18 percentage points higher, not a quarter-point rise in interest rates.