Monetary policy in CEE is an important determinant in the wage bargaining process, because trade unions have to predict inflation as one component of future real wages. This paper scrutinizes whether countries in CEE that officially announce an inflation target are tempted to act...

The bulk of recent literature on foreign exchange interventions has overlooked the potential interdependencies that may exist between these operations and the conduct of monetary policy. This is the case even under inflation targeting and especially in emerging-market economies, because central...

This paper analyses the implications of cost-push shocks for the optimal choice of monetary policy target in an two-country sticky-price model. In addition to cost-push shocks, each country is subject to labour-supply and money-demand shocks. It is shown that the fully optimal coordinated policy...

Under a conventional policy rule, a central bank adjusts its policy rate linearly according to the gap between inflation and its target, and the gap between output and its potential. Under 'the opportunistic approach to disinflation' a central bank controls inflation aggressively when inflation...

This paper deals with a 'new' type of monetary policy making: Inflation Targeting (IT). It attempts to identify reasons for which countries might be inclined to adopt this framework for monetary policy. By reviewing recent experience of inflation targeting countries, the paper outlines the major...

According to recent literature on monetary policy, there are two different interpretations of inflation targeting; (1) an instrument rule that responds to a measure of inflation (forecast) deviations from target and (2) a discretionary optimizing strategy towards minimizing the inflation...

This paper reviews South Africa's monetary policy since 2007 and makes recommendations towards improving the inflation-targeting framework currently in place. Following a surge in inflation into double digits in 2007/08, the South African Reserve Bank managed to guide inflation in line with the...

Central banks define a monetary policy strategy in which they set out the instruments they use to achieve their monetary policy objectives as well as the incoming data they take into account when using these instruments. Independent central banks in particular are expected to provide a detailed...