The Case for Reform of the Reserve Bank of Australia Policy and Communication Strategy

At any time, the public should be able to evaluate whether the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) interest rate decisions are consistent with achieving statutory mandates. The RBA's current policy and communication strategy makes this difficult. The mandates, as interpreted by the RBA, fail to provide a clearly identifiable performance benchmark. And the supporting communication strategy falls short of a commitment to explain the economic basis of why and how interest rate decisions achieve mandated objectives. Examples of both concerns are given from various public documents. Basic reforms would improve the accountability and effectiveness of monetary policy.     

Does the Reserve Bank of Australia follow a forward-looking nonlinear monetary policy rule?

ABSTRACT

The conventional monetary policy rule describes a simple linear relationship between the domestic interest rate, inflation rate and output gap. An important extension to this rule is to incorporate the forward-looking behaviour of central banks, where it is assumed that they target an expected level of inflation instead of its current realised value. Using quarterly observations for the period 1993:1-2018:2, this paper investigates whether the conduct of monetary policy in Australia can be described by a forward-looking linear monetary policy rule, or by a nonlinear forward-looking monetary policy rule. In particular, the nonlinear forward-looking monetary policy rule is analysed in a regime-switching framework using a smooth logistic transition regression model. While the results show that the conventional forward-looking linear monetary policy rule describes the application of monetary policy in Australia reasonably well, the interest rate setting behaviour of the RBA is best described by a nonlinear forward-looking monetary policy rule.     

Sterilised Interventions within a Heterogeneous Expectation Exchange Rate Model: Evidence from the Reserve Bank of Australia

In this article, we study the effectiveness of central bank intervention within a heterogeneous expectation exchange rate model for the Reserve Bank of Australia. The empirical evidence is gathered by applying a Markov‐switching approach to daily A$/US$ exchange data from December 1983 to April 2008. Our results support both chartist and fundamentalist regimes. It is shown that the two regimes are persistent and that the fundamentalist regime is riskier. Moreover, interventions when the chartist regime prevails increase the proportion of fundamentalists and thus exert a stabilising effect on the foreign exchange market.     

中央银行独立性、责任性与通货膨胀目标制

近年来不少学者提出,我国货币政策应转向通货膨胀目标制。我国现行的政策实际上正是一种隐性的通货膨胀目标制,20世纪90年代以来所发生的几次通货膨胀偏倚很大程度上是由于央行的独立性不够。鉴于通货膨胀目标制并不能解决当前我国货币政策调控中的问题并可能带来更多的问题,今后货币政策改革应坚持由直接调控向间接调控、由数量型调控向价格型调控的转变思路,在提高央行独立性的同时,增强其责任性并提高货币政策的透明度。     

The information content of the Reserve Bank of Australia's inflation forecasts

In this article, the inflation forecasts produced by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and that generated by private forecasters, are used to assess whether the Reserve Bank possesses information about inflation that the private sector does not have. The results show that the Reserve Bank inflation forecasts embody useful predictive information about inflation, beyond that contained in private forecasts, over the recent inflation targeting period.     

外汇储备、银行危机与政府政策

本文探讨了在实行固定或钉住汇率制度条件下,面对商业银行清偿能力危机时,政府是否应该救助的问题。经研究发现:在外汇储备充足时,当商业银行的不良资产较多,或该国的信贷市场处于不断发展与扩张的阶段,政府应该救助;在外汇储备不充足时,当该国的信贷市场处于不断发展与扩张的阶段,政府应该救助;当商业银行的不良资产较多时,政府是否救助视该国具体情况而定;当该国外债规模较大时,政府不应该提供救助。     

Debt,Credit and Monetary Targeting in Australia*

The purpose of this paper is to examine the case for debt targeting in Australia. This issue has recently attracted considerable policy interest, especially in the US, in view of the acceleration and diffusion of new financial products and processes which have tended to undermine the existing monetary aggregates. A series for broad credit (defined as outstanding indebtedness of all non-financial sectors) is constructed and its behaviour and that of its components is discussed and analyzed. A variety of empirical techniques based upon the predictability criterion are employed to show that, unlike the US, no case can be made to support the use of broad credit as an intermediate target in Australia. Bank credit and M3 are found to perform reasonably well as intermediate targets.     

银行非自愿超额准备金与宏观经济波动:来自中国的经验证据

基于将银行超额准备金分解为预防性超额准备金和非自愿超额准备金,以及将非自愿超额准备金作为银行体系流动性衡量指标,并对非自愿超额准备金的波动机制及其对宏观经济波动影响机制进行考察,发现1998-2010年期间,在外汇占款和银行贷款的综合作用下,非自愿超额准备金率经历了先降后升,然后再次下降的走势。而且从短期看,非自愿超额准备金的累积会对产出、价格和银行贷款产生负向效应,但从长期看,则又体现为正向效应,从而放大和加剧了宏观经济波动。在此情况下,货币当局在流动性管理过程中,应审慎针对非自愿超额准备金展开微调性操作,从而实现宏观经济的平稳运行。     

Money and Banking: Select Research Papers by the Economists of Reserve Bank of India

Journal of Quantitative Economics -     

Inflation Targeting: What Can the ECB Learn From the Recent Experience of the Bank of England?

Establishment of the European Central Bank presents a rare opportunity to define the operations of a central bank without a prior track record. This paper asks what might be learnt from the recent experience of inflation targeting at the Bank of England before the ECB specifies an, as yet undefined, operational target. We consider whether there should be single or multiple targets and which inflation measure should be used, if at all. If inflation is targeted then a forecast of its value becomes the intermediate variable. This raises an issue of transparency and the compensating supply of information necessary to fill the gap, but too much 'openness' can also be problematic. The ECB must be accountable and the contracting approach may be useful although being seen to 'say' and 'do' the same thing is ultimately most important.     

The rise of supplemental lending at the World Bank

World Bank projects sometimes receive supplemental loans months or years after initial project approval. Largely unnoticed, supplemental lending has mushroomed in the last decade, accounting for nearly 30% of all new loans in some years. These loans can serve important functions, as they come without the bureaucratic delays associated with new projects. We argue that supplemental loans are potentially useful foreign policy tools for powerful donors in settings where time is of the essence. Consistent with this, we find that countries receive significantly larger supplemental loans while serving a two‐year term on the geopolitically important United Nations Security Council.