Central bank financial strength has not been a significant issue for a substantial period of time. However, recent theoretical and empirical literature argues that even central banks require sufficient level of financial strength to perform functions effectively and achieve their objectives. In...

We propose an alternative way of estimating Taylor reaction functions if the zero-lowerbound on nominal interest rates is binding. This approach relies on tackling the real rather than the nominal interest rate. So if the nominal rate is (close to) zero central banks can influence the inflation...

This paper develops a theoretical model which replicates main features of the euro overnight interbank market and the Eurosystem's operational framework, which has been in place since September 2008. Main ingredients of the model are frictions in the interbank market, a refinancing operation...

One characteristic feature of central banks today is that policy decisions are almost exclusively made by a committee rather than by a single policy maker. Another is that central banks are considerably more transparent than they used to be. Together, this has brought to the fore an important...

The paper engages with an important aspect of the European crisis, the European banks' reliance on collateralized (repo) market funding, that has received relatively little analytical attention in the scholarship on the European financial and sovereign debt crisis. The paper is guided by three...

The Communication strategy for central banks is traditionally interlinked with one of their important mandates – conduct of monetary policy. Credibility to central bank actions in the process is achieved by keeping the market expectations more closely synchronised with its own, through the art...

We estimate forward-looking Taylor rules on data from macroeconomic forecasts of three central banks (Bank of England, National Bank of Poland and Swiss National Bank) in order to determine the extent to which these banks are forward looking in their monetary policy decisions. We find that all...

Forecasting is a daunting challenge for business economists and policymakers, often made more difficult by pervasive uncertainty. No such uncertainty is more difficult than projecting the reaction of policymakers to major shifts in the economy. We explore the process by which the FOMC came to...

Heavy foreign exchange intervention by central banks of emerging markets have lead to sizeable expansions of their balance sheets in recent years?accumulating foreign assets and non-money domestic liabilities (the latter due to sterilization operations). With domestic liabilities being mostly of...