Modelling transmission mechanism of monetary policy in the Czech Republic

In December 1997, the Czech Republic became the first transitional economy to adopt an inflation-targeting (IT) framework. This paper addresses two important topics: optimal inflation-targeting horizon and optimal speed of disinflation. A small, aggregate, forward-looking model of the Czech monetary transmission was calibrated and estimated. Stochastic simulations were used to compare consequences of different forecast horizons and different targeted disinflation paths. Our first conclusion is that the optimal targeting horizon is probably less than a year. Secondly, postponing the initial disinflation does not imply significant gains in terms of lower output volatility or a smaller external imbalance.