After decades using monetary aggregates as the main instrument of monetary policy and having different varieties of crawling peg exchange rate regimes, Colombia adopted a full-fledged inflation-targeting (IT) regime in 1999, with inflation as the nominal anchor, a floating exchange rate, and the...

We analyse three models to determine the conditions under which reserve requirements are used as a part of an optimal monetary policy framework in an inflation targeting regime. In all cases the Central Bank (CB) minimizes an objective function that depends on deviations of inflation from its...

To evaluate whether transparency is beneficial, it is usual to assume that the central bank may choose one of two options, opacity versus truthful communication. However, the monetary policymaker may have incentives to misrepresent private information so as to reduce economic volatility by...

If theory-consistent models can ever hope to forecast well and to be useful for policy, theyhave to relate to data which though rich in information is uncertain, unbalanced and sometimes forecastsfrom external sources about the future path of other variables. One example from many is financial...

There is now an impetus to apply dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models to forecasting. But thesemodels typically rely on purpose-built data, for example on tradable and nontradable sector outputs.How then do we know that the model will forecast well, in advance? We develop an early...

En este documento se hace una evaluación tanto de las fortalezas de la economía colombiana que contribuirían a la sostenibilidad actual del crecimiento, como de los factores de riesgo y vulnerabilidades que podrían afectarlo negativamente. Con este propósito se compara el desempeño...

Despite foreign reserves´ strategic asset allocation relies mainly on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), the unique characteristics of central banks obliges them to articulate and reconcile typical optimization procedures with reserves´ management objectives such as providing confidence regarding...

Using Bayesian estimation techniques, we estimate a small open economyDSGE model with credit-market imperfections for the Colombian economy. Us-ing the estimated model we investigate what are the sources of business cycle°uctuations. We show that balance-sheet e®ects play an important role in...

Colombia experienced a deep recession in 1999-2003. Growth slowed by 4.2%,and investment by 34.6%. Was the severity of the recession due to a ¯nan-cial accelerator mechanism µa la Bernanke, Gertler, and Gilchrist (1999)? Toanswer this question, this paper estimates a dynamic stochastic general...

Many central banks, particularly in the developing world, aim for exchange rate stability as a macroeconomic goal. However, most are reluctant to relinquish monetary policy autonomy, so they end up operating through both interest rate and foreign exchange interventions. But the use of multiple...