An Unobserved Components Model of the Monetary Transmission Mechanism in a Small Open Economy

This paper develops and estimates an unobserved components model for purposes of monetary policy analysis and inflation targeting in a small open economy. Cyclical components are modeled as a multivariate linear rational expectations model of the monetary transmission mechanism, while trend components are modeled as unobserved components while ensuring the existence of a well defined balanced growth path. Full information maximum likelihood estimation of this unobserved components model, conditional on prior information concerning the values of trend components, provides a quantitative description of the monetary transmission mechanism in a small open economy, yields a mutually consistent set of indicators of inflationary pressure together with confidence intervals, and facilitates the generation of relatively accurate forecasts.