dual mandate

A dual mandate refers to a situation where a central bank is given two goals to achieve at the same time. Imagine you have a toy box with two different toys you want to play with: a car and a doll. Your mom tells you that you can only have one toy out of the box at a time, but she wants you to have fun playing with both of them. This is similar to a central bank that is given two goals - like helping to keep prices stable (so things don't become too expensive) and trying to make sure there are plenty of jobs for people (so everyone can find work). These goals can sometimes conflict with each other, just like you might want to play with both toys but you can only have one out at a time. So the central bank has to figure out how to balance these goals and make decisions that will help achieve both of them as best as possible, just like you have to decide which toy to play with first and how to find a way to have fun with both of them.