Inflation Targeting and Target Instability

What does South Korean inflation targeting target?

This paper characterises South Korean monetary policy in the period of explicit inflation targeting that started in 1999. We calculate Bank of Korea’s parameters in the policy objective function, conditional on an estimated macro-model. We show that this central bank appears to have pursued optimal policy geared towards achieving price stability, while displaying a considerable degree of intere...

Inflation targeting: Is IT to blame for banking system instability?

In light of the financial crisis, the practice of inflation targeting (IT) has been blamed for authorities’ failure to respond to the increase in financial systemic risk and to the development of asset bubbles. However, utilizing a rich database containing nearly 5500 commercial banks from 70 countries (among which, 22 are IT) for the period 1998–2012, this paper argues that on average, inflati...

Inflation Targets and Inflation Targeting

There is widespread agreement that price stability (in practice, low and stable inflation) should be an objective of monetary policy. This agreement is reflected both in the mandates set for monetary policy by governments and in the practice of central banks. Several other important questions about the objectives for monetary policy are less settled: Should there be other objectives? If there a...

Inflation Band Targeting and Optimal Inflation Contracts

Inflation Targeting

Inflation targeting is a monetary-policy strategy that was introduced in New Zealand in 1990, has been very successful in terms of stabilizing both inflation and the real economy, and as of 2007 had been adopted by more than 20 industrialized and non-industrialized countries. It is characterized by an announced numerical inflation target, an implementation of monetary policy that gives a major ...