Most of the other responses are missing the point of your question. You really asking why central banks don't engage in targeting the price level, rather than p

Most of the other responses are missing the point of your question. You really asking why central banks don't engage in targeting the price level, rather than price changes (=inflation). In price level targeting, they'd aim for higher (lower) inflation next year if they under-(over-)shot their target this year. Academics and have studies the pros and cons. I don't have time to post summaries, but maybe someone else can step in: https://www.stlouisfed.org/-/media/project/frbstl/stlouisfed/files/pdfs/bullard/remarks/2018/bullard_cfa_stlouis_10_january_2018.pdf https://www.stlouisfed.org/-/media/project/frbstl/stlouisfed... https://www.ijcb.org/journal/ijcb2002_3.pdf https://www.ijcb.org/journal/ijcb2002_3.pdf