This paper evaluates the governance performance of four small, open economy central banks. Two of these, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, are inflation targeting; the other two, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, place major emphasis on exchange rate stability. The four have in common a considerable number of the elements seen as necessary for excellent governance. These include relevant statutory underpinnings, clarity of primary monetary policy goals, commitment to improved transparency and accountability for monetary policy decision making, and ongoing financial statement accountability. They also display significant differences in principle and in operating procedures, and hence in their monetary policy and corporate governance frameworks. In a broad sense, the differences can be associated with different primary goals, different constitutional environments, single-person or ¡§committee¡¨ decision-making models, and the central banks having proceeded at different speeds to recognise the need for, and to commit fully to, optimal transparency and accountability. There is ¡§no one size fits all¡¨ best practice governance framework. The individual central banks should therefore continue aiming for excellence in monetary policy and corporate governance in their own rights, rather than for some common operational governance model. In this respect, a number of key desirable principles should be adhered to.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research in its series Working Papers with number
202003.
Length: 44 pages Date of creation: Oct 2003 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:hkm:wpaper:202003
Contact details of provider: Postal: 55th Floor , Two International Finance Centre , 8 Finance Street , Central, Hong Kong Phone: (852)2878 1978 Fax: (852)2878 7006 Email: Web page: http://www.hkimr.org More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (HKIMR).
Find related papers by JEL classification: F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: