If the actual unemployment rate is below the natural rate of unemployment, it would be expected that

The expectations-augmented Phillips relation π−πᵉ=−α(u−u*) has α> 0. When u< u*, inflation exceeds expected inflation; with adaptive expectations it rises over time. Wages normally face upward rather than downward pressure, and neither a fall in the natural rate nor an autonomous rightward shift is implied by the unemployment gap itself.