Monetary Policy
RBNZ faces mandate review under new government
Coalition agreement retains Labour pledge to consider shake-up of Reserve Bank mandate
Bank of Israel grapples with low inflation
Latest figure is a welcome exit from deflation but the central bank does not expect prices to be back on target until 2018
RBA needs representative for the poor – religious group
The proposed new board member would help the central bank understand the effect monetary policy has on the poor, says group
Fiscal policy shocks amplified by accommodative monetary policy – paper
IMF research analyses impact of government spending spillovers, noting effects are amplified in countries with interest rates near the lower bound
Goldfajn stresses current target remains ‘credible’
Central bank pushed back against calls for the target to be raised during 2016 debate
Higher rates contributed to recovery in Latin America – IDB economist
Less hawkish policies can fail to generate growth but push up inflation, research finds
Inflation target supports price setting and wage formation – Ohlsson
Target contributed to economic recovery in Sweden, Riksbank deputy governor says
BoE’s new MPC members disagree on future path of hikes
New deputy Dave Ramsden sees current degree of slack to be too great to warrant removal of stimulus, while Tenreyro believes it cannot “persist for too long”
Williams: weak productivity, population growth keep rates low
The “new normal” implies a federal funds rate at 2.5%, says San Francisco’s John Williams
BoE paper sheds light on global policy transmission
Comparison of UK and Hong Kong based on bank-level data finds evidence of both portfolio and funding effects
Fed’s Powell: normalisation will be ‘manageable’ for emerging markets
Fed governor says current capital flows appear to be in line with fundamentals; corporate debts a vulnerability but “situation is not alarming”
Birr plunges 15% as Ethiopia devalues currency
Move aims to tackle “severe” forex shortage; IMF recommends higher interest rates and more flexible exchange rate
FOMC split over inflation forecasts, minutes show
Participants expressed concern that low inflation this year might reflect not only transitory factors
Japan’s ineffective efforts at monetary easing
A study of the natural rate of interest indicates the Bank of Japan’s QQE may not have been as accommodative as claimed, Sayuri Shirai argues. The failings appear to be related to effectiveness, rather than scale
Fed policy has had bigger impact on global liquidity since 2009
A 25bp rate cut causes a cross-border lending growth to rise of two percentage points, versus 0.8 before the crisis, researchers find
Danish central bank critical of fiscal easing plans
As growth accelerates and inflation rises the economy risks overheating, the central bank says
More communication may hamper monetary policy, paper says
Independence and bigger MPCs may convey confusing messages and provoke forecast errors
ECB starts publishing corporate bond purchase data
Move increases transparency, but data contains few surprises, analysts say
ECB taper unlikely to upset major European equity investors
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is boosted by its €200 billion investment in European stocks