Some Observations on Recent Economic and Financial Trends

So I am relieved to say that the Reserve Bank has no role in developing or enforcing accounting standards, though we do of course have to produce our own accounts consistent with the relevant standards. It may interest you to know in this context that the Reserve Bank has itself made the change to IFRS, and will present its 2005/06 accounts on this basis in the Annual Report later this year, just like any listed company. To our knowledge, we are the only major central bank to adopt IFRS in full, as yet. This continues the RBA’s practice for many years of adopting commercial standards of fi nancial disclosure.