Any future promise by the Fed to deliver inflation above 2 percent for a time also would have to be judged against the central bank’s failure so far to even lift it convincingly to that level. In March, prices rose just 1.5 percent from the year-ago level, according to the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge.

“A framework review conclusion that promised to behave differently and contingently in the future would be regarded as having relatively little credibility in financial markets,’’ Krishna Guha, head of central bank strategy at Evercore ISI, told the conference.

Monetary policy makers have bemoaned the depressed level of inflation but don’t seem to be in a rush to cut interest rates in response, in spite of pressure from President Donald Trump to do so. Last week, Trump suggested the Fed slash rates a full point, and throw in some quantitative easing for good measure.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, considered one of the more dovish policy makers, told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that he was prepared to wait through the summer to see if inflation recovered.

Some investors are betting that the Fed will ease credit by the end of this year, in part to help pave the way for the adoption of an average inflation targeting framework in 2020. When Guha raised the possibility of something like that happening to Williams, the New York Fed president didn’t directly respond.

Former Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser voiced concern that policy makers would end their review by pledging more than they can deliver when it comes to controlling inflation and managing the ups and downs of the economy.

“A big risk would be the Fed promising some degree of precision in their strategy and then get frustrated over and over again by not being able to deliver with the precision that the markets think they can,’’ Plosser said.

It was a breakdown in financial markets, of course, that led to the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression a decade ago.

Bank for International Settlements economist Andrew Filardo said the Fed review seemed to be giving short shrift to that disaster and the role that monetary policy potentially played in the run-up to it.

“I don’t think any of the strategies would prevent a future crisis from occurring,’’ he said.