Communication
Uncertainty about momentum in the labour market – RBA minutes
“Mixed” picture in Australian labour market shows unemployment increasing alongside full-time employment; spare capacity likely to persist “for some time”
Website of the year: Central Bank of Kenya
The East African central bank has embraced responsive design to cater for an increasingly mobile audience, eclipsing the websites of many peers
Transparency: Bank of Canada
Communications embedded in the policy process, fresh thinking on shared content and an expanded senior team show the central bank’s commitment to staying at the leading edge of transparency
Canada’s Schembri highlights new inflation communication method
Bank of Canada has adopted three-pronged core inflation approach but now only publishes forecasts of headline inflation in its reports
Central Bank of Brazil discussed smaller hike at December meeting
Copom weighed a 50bps cut, but chose to “frontload” monetary easing, given anchored expectations and promising outlook for inflation
Fed could raise rates faster than anticipated, minutes show
Prospect of undershooting the longer-run employment target has increased, the FOMC reports, but expansionary fiscal policies should improve growth prospects
BoE’s Cunliffe: central banks not causing low natural rates
Quantitative easing has not caused rates to fall, but is rather responding to a low natural rate, deputy says; the fall in sterling could require deviation of the policy rate from the natural rate
RBNZ moves to publish policy rate forecasts
Central bank scraps forecasts of 90-day bank bill rate as relationship with policy rate has been affected by global regulatory changes
Olsen says Norges Bank must tread carefully as it nears the zero lower bound
Governor says effects of monetary policy may become less certain; review of monetary policy framework about to begin
Further policy easing will be required – RBNZ assistant governor
Another rate cut on the cards despite improved inflation outlook, says McDermott, emphasising need for accommodative monetary policy to push inflation to middle of target range
Yield curve control risks are manageable – Kuroda
BoJ governor says he shares concerns raised by Ben Bernanke, but believes the central bank will be able to cope with them
BoE’s Saunders expects higher post-Brexit growth than central forecast
Bank of England’s newest committee member says the labour market is likely to prove more sluggish than the consensus suggests, but growth will be more positive
Fall in inflation only ‘temporary’ – Sarb governor
Positive factors underlying inflation decrease may not be here to stay, says Kganyago, emphasising a continued rise in inflation could threaten long-run growth
Hike now to avoid more action later, says Fed’s Lacker
Richmond Fed president adds his voice to growing number of Fed officials calling for rate hike; Loretta Mester insists proximity to US election need not prevent action at next meeting
Boston Fed’s Rosengren highlights risk of overheating
US economy looks “resilient”, despite some mixed signals from the data, says regional Fed president; advocates process of gradual rate hikes as the risk of an overheating economy grows
Rates likely to stay on hold, says Chilean monetary policy report
Inflation expected to be in the target range by year-end, latest monetary policy report forecasts show; no need for new hikes if economic trends continue
Kganyago justifies Sarb’s response to ‘troubling mix’ of issues
Sarb governor says the public should be “satisfied” but not “happy” with the current economic outlook, given that monetary policy has only offset some of the problems causing high inflation
Brazilian policy-makers concerned about inflation outlook
Monetary policy committee left rates on hold, concerned with the results of various surveys which showed inflation above the target for 2017
Carney deflects criticism of Brexit response
MPs question BoE officials on whether broad package of monetary easing was an overreaction; Forbes explains four factors behind dissenting vote
Norges Bank to publish minutes for first time
Central bank plans to release details of all aspects of executive board meetings except for monetary policy deliberations, citing growing interest and requests for disclosure
Kuroda says BoJ will not reduce easing, but helicopter money is not on its way
Governor offers clues on the central bank’s “comprehensive assessment” of its monetary policy, saying there are no limits to the scale of easing, but some policies are off the table
Interest rates to remain flat for longer period of time – Chile minutes
It might be necessary to “postpone” normalisation of monetary policy, latest minutes from Central Bank of Chile show; interest rates to stay at 3.5% for “prolonged period” of time
Yellen: future policy-makers may need new tools to tackle recessions
Fed chair says equilibrium rates may not be high enough for rate cuts to deal with all eventualities, so US policy-makers may need to think more laterally about their options
Signs of ‘de-anchoring’ inflation expectations in eurozone – ECB paper
Study finds professional forecasts are paying more attention to ECB inflation projections and less to the target; authors suggest “extensive use of forward guidance” could help