The Making of Contemporary Australian Monetary Policy - Backward- or Forward- Looking?

Abstract

Monetary authorities rarely disclose the true reasons behind their policy reactions. A tracing of the policy reaction function to see if the monetary authority is applying simple rules holds the potential to offer profound insight into the past behavioral relationship between the monetary authority and economic agencies. A reasonable body of knowledge about the direction of monetary policy would, moreover, assist economic agencies in forming their expectations, which would in turn, be useful for the monetary authority in anticipating the likely trends of the overall economy. The main objective of this study is to track de Brouwer and Gilbert (2005) from the Australian financial deregulation era (from 1983 to 2002) to the present. Empirical findings show that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is more forward-looking when formulating monetary policy rather than backward-looking, and that inflation targeting plays a significant role in stabilizing the output of the economy.