Transparency and accountability: empirical models and policy- making at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Traditionally central banks have been fairly secretive and inexplicit in explaining their views about the future, the needs for policy and the evidence on which those decisions are based. The framework for monetary policy and its implementation in New Zealand place strong requirements for transparency by the Reserve Bank about its views on the future, how policy affects inflation and what policy should do. This means that research plays a particularly clear role in policy-making.1