There is enormous economic pressure to lower the current rate even though current rates are not high interest historically. I dislike that on one hand we're talking about inflation as relatively on target historically, but ignoring that rates are low historically as well. Also, the 2% target is relatively new historically speaking, and was only set "explicitly" in 2012 (although I think that it's been unofficially used since the late 90s in the US).Gotta put that in perspective. 2.9% is still lower than the average inflation rate over the last few decades/century. It just happens to be higher than the fed's ridiculously precise and low 2.0% goal. A 2% +- 1% range (1% to 3%) would have been a heck of a lot smarter for them. But then engineers that are tasked with making goals actually achievable are rarely involved in politics or political decisions.
If we look at what people expect, which is probably pre-covid I'd prefer to look at the last decade. If we look at the past decade (ignoring 2021/2022/2023) only two years had significantly higher inflation than 2%. 2011 at 3% and 2018 at 2.44%, with most years having inflation below 2% or just above.
In general, I think that the inflation numbers are fundamentally cooked. I think that "actual" inflation is much higher, and that's the general feeling from everybody that I know. I know that my "core" expenses have risen much higher in recent years than what inflation would suggest, and housing is also through the roof.