Book Description

Monetary policy faces a particularly difficult task in most economies going through structural reforms: having to stabilise fluctuations around the trend, central banks have also to deal with a trend that is itself subjected to shifts, as a result of reforms. This book proposes some perspectives on these issues, with various contributions from both practitioners and academics, emphasising how rather simple techniques can be conveniently used to solve complex problems. Several issues are hence considered, each emphasising a particular aspect of the theme proposed: (i) forecasting inflation, with the experience of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand being taken as an example, since this country went through drastic structural change, (ii) understanding underlying trends of inflation, focusing on expectations and data revision, wage-bargaining process and more generally supply effects, since structural change magnifies them, (iii) formulating policy recommendations, the example taken is the strategy towards the euro for Eastern European countries and (iv) assessing risks of sudden stops.