Listener 20 September, 1997.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
When a decade ago this columnist talked about the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) “quasi-targeting” on the exchange rate, the conventional wisdom said that this was a nonsense. Over the years that quasi-targeting became increasingly explicit, as illustrated by the RBNZ’s Monetary Conditions Index. The MCI, as it is known, combines a short term interest rate and the exchange rate (measured by a trade weighted index – the TWI), to give a quantitative indicator of the RBNZ’s assessment of monetary conditions. The RBNZ even sets a range in which the MCI should hover. As I write the index is meant to be between 775 and 875, although it is likely to be changed with the new monetary policy announcement by the RBNZ, this Thursday (18th).