Independent Review of the Operation of Monetary Policy in New Zealand

In May 2000, the Government announced that the New Zealand monetary policy framework would be reviewed. Professor Lars Svensson of Stockholm University was appointed to undertake the review and to report by the end of February 2001. Professor Svensson’s report was released by the Treasurer/Minister of Finance on 28 February.

In this issue of the Bulletin, we have published the Executive Summary and recommendations of the Svensson Report, together with the terms of reference of the review. The complete report by Professor Svensson can be obtained from the New Zealand Treasury and can be accessed on www.monpolreview.govt.nz – the monetary policy review website, and on www.rbnz.govt.nz – the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s website.

» Read more: Independent Review of the Operation of Monetary Policy in New Zealand

Related posts

Tags:

Bond Fundamentals – Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy

It’s the Federal Reserve Bank that influences the money supply. Three tools are used to implement monetary policy:

  1. Open Market Operations
  2. Discount Rates
  3. Reserve Requirements

Since open market operations is the tool used most, we will cover it. Here’s how it works: When the economy is growing too fast and the Fed is worried about the inflation rate, it will sell government securities from its portfolio to the open market. This decreases bank reserves, which means the money supply decreases. When there are less bank and businesses have to pay the bank more in order to borrow. This discourages consumers and businesses from borrowing. Less borrowing means less spending, which slows the economy and eventually can reduce price pressures.

» Read more: Bond Fundamentals – Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy

Related posts

Tags:

Has Monetary Policy Been So Bad That It Is Better to Get Rid of It? The Case of Mexico

MANY LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES are considering adopting the U.S. dollar as legal currency, and some, like Ecuador, have taken concrete steps in that direction. Proponents of dollarization generally hold the view that domestic monetary policy has been the primary cause for the economic instability experienced by these countries in the past three decades. Yet, at least for Mexico, very few empirical studies have tried to identify the role of monetary policy.

The existing empirical literature on Mexican monetary policy consists mainly of single equation estimations (see Calvo and Mendoza 1996 and Kamin and Rogers 1996), or of reduced-form vector autoregressions (see Copelman and Werner 1995 and Hernandez 1999).(1) The first class of models is silent on the impact of monetary policy on the rest of the economy. The second class of models, by definition, cannot identify monetary policy. In addition, all previous literature has either ignored the issue of changes in regime, or has confined itself to the study of monetary policy within regimes. This despite the fact that some of Mexico’s major crises occurred during the passage from one regime to another. A proper evaluation of the impact of monetary policy on the Mexican economy requires that these critical transition periods are considered.

» Read more: Has Monetary Policy Been So Bad That It Is Better to Get Rid of It? The Case of Mexico

Related posts

Tags: