This paper utilises the partial adjustment approach of Judd and Rudebusch (1998) to empirically estimate the degree of short-term interest rate smoothing by central banks in the dollar block countries. All countries appear to smooth short-term interest rates significantly, with New Zealand and...

Many critics of the Taylor rule claim that it is inferior to inflation forecast based (IFB) rules because it is not forward-looking, is not aggressive enough, and because of uncertainty surrounding the output gap. Nevertheless, the Taylor rule serves a constructive purpose because it abstracts...

The output gap plays a crucial role in thinking and actions of many central banks but real time measurements undergo substantial revisions as more data become available (Orphanides (2001), Orphanides and van Norden (forthcoming)). Some central banks augment, such as the Bank of Canada and the...

Fundamental economic factors—market demand and supply conditions—provide the most consistent explanation for trends in commodity prices from 2004 to 2011. This paper presents empirical evidence that the rise and fall of commodity prices on a monthly basis can be strongly linked to the value...

This paper uses the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s model to combine a macroeconomic evaluation of the performance inflation targeting with an analysis of policy rules. The questions to answer are two: (i) what lessons can be obtained from the shocks that have been experienced and the response...

Over the last few years, monetary policy in New Zealand has focused on reducing strong demand and inationary pressures. It has been commented that this task has been frustrated by a weakening of the monetary policy transmission mechanism in New Zealand. In this paper we draw upon a range of...

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is regarded as one of the most transparent central banks in the world. Recent research suggests that one benefit of such transparency is that financial markets better anticipate a central bank's reaction to incoming data, and in relation, do not over-react...

The New Zealand Treasury and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand both maintain and use comprehensive macroeconomic models of the New Zealand economy: NZM and FPS respectively. In this paper, shocks are applied to the two models to illustrate and compare their dynamic properties. The most notable...

This paper outlines how the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's Forecasting and Policy System (FPS) is used to prepare the quarterly economic projections. In addition to a very brief overview of the system, the paper focuses on four key issues. First, the current methodology for incorporating a...

In this paper, stochastic simulations of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's new macroeconomic model, FPS, are used to examine the issue of which price index monetary policy should stabilise in a small open economy. Under the class of policy rules considered, targeting a measure of domestic...