Public policy lines blur: implications for reserve managers

It was not much more than a decade ago when the overriding objective of most central banks was relatively simple: maintenance of the value of money as evidenced through price stability.  Governments endowed central banks with independence through central banking laws to protect this mandate from potential political interference. And, by every measure, central banks have been largely successful.

Whether central banks have been a victim of their own success or whether they have been captured by a