This study takes stock of the institutional reform of monetary policy in Latin America since the early 1990s. It argues that strengthening the legal independence of central banks, together with macroeconomic policies, was instrumental in reducing inflation from three-digit annual rates in the...

This paper discusses the central banking, monetary, and banking laws for 17 countries in Europe, an area where many of the techniques that are now universally used in regulating or controlling the supply of money and credit were developed. The complete text of the basic central bank law of each...

There has been growing interest recently in the scope for promoting monetary stability through the establishment of independent central banks. This paper reviews the issues involved in central bank independence against the background of arrangements in nine countries. The analysis suggests that...

Since 1992, the central banks of the Baltic states and the Commonwealth of Independent States have undertaken comprehensive reform of their monetary and exchange arrangements in support of their stabilization efforts. Their efforts have been supported by extensive technical assistance provided...

Inflation-forecast targeting is state of the art for monetary policy. This book explores first principles, including managing short-term policy trade-offs. The book also outlines efficient operational procedures and reviews the experiences of Canada, the Czech Republic, and India. The analysis...

The paper presents a DGE model designed as a core projection tool to support monetary policy in inflation-targeting (IT) emerging market economies. The paper uses a particularly simple and flexible general equilibrium model structure that can be amended to account for various phenomena that...

This paper evaluates the performance of two alternative policy rules, a forward-looking rule and a spontaneous adjustment rule, under alternative inflation targets, in terms of output losses in a macroeconomic model, using European Union data. The simulations suggest that forward-looking rules...

This paper presents a model for Inflation Targeting under imperfect policy credibility. It modifies the conventional model in three ways: an endogenous policy credibility process, by which monetary policy can gain or lose credibility over time; non-linearities in the inflation equation and in the...

This paper highlights that central banks from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru (the LA5 countries) reaped the benefits of what they sowed in successfully weathering the global crisis. The adoption of far-reaching institutional, policy, and operational reforms during the last two decades...

Inflation distorts prices, erodes savings, discourages investment,stimulates capital flight, inhibits growth, and makes economic planning anightmare. During the past decade, several advanced economies have takena new approach to the age-old problem of controlling inflation throughmonetary policy...