ABSTRACT

This article discusses central bank forward guidance as a performative (Austin) and conative (Jakobson) practice – hence, as a form of audience-centred communication that intends to transform their behaviour when deployed by a narrator who is simultaneously also a character in the story. Taking the European Central Bank (ECB) as its primary example, the article conveys how the double role of narrator and character assumed by this institution renders it more permeable to reactions from the markets and the public. As such, ECB forward guidance is frequently misguided, with its communicative imperatives indeed being ‘corrected’ and ‘reoriented’ by market actors and publics wishing to perceive the European Central Bank as behaving like an impartial and just frontline hero. While acknowledging the presence of conversational features within these reflexive communication practices, the article approaches forward guidance as an unfolding story, not only due to the relevance of the characterisation processes through which the European Central Bank is repositioned as hero or villain by its publics, but also because exemplary episodes exhibit a reminiscent quality that isolates them from their original context and opens them up to the possibility of re-activation – as indeed happened during the recent Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

摘要

本文将中央银行前瞻指引作为一种表演性 (Austin) 和意动性 (Jakobson) 实践——因此，作为一种以观众为中心的交流形式，当由同时也是故事中的角色的叙述者部署时，旨在改变他们的行为. 以欧洲中央银行 (ECB) 为主要例子，文章传达了该机构所承担的叙述者和角色的双重角色如何使其更容易受到市场和公众的反应。因此，欧洲央行的前瞻性指引经常被误导，其沟通要求确实被市场参与者和希望将欧洲央行视为公正和公正的前线英雄的公众“纠正”和“重新定位”。