The Use of Financial Market Indicators by Monetary Authorities

         In a new and changing environment for monetary policy, an interesting issue to examine is the use of financial market indicators by monetary policy authorities. With this in mind, the OECD canvassed a number of major central banks to get their views. This paper presents a synthesis of the responses and respects the confidentiality of individual central banks. Its main conclusions are as follows. In principle, financial market variables can provide additional information regarding the shocks that strike the economy, such as their perceived size and source as well as the process of feeding through the economy. A complementary function is to gauge market anticipations and reactions to policy changes, including the credibility of policy objectives. Regarding policy setting, monetary authorities are clearly aware of the dangers of mechanically targeting this information, which could lead to circularities. However, in some cases, they seem to find financial market indicators useful in ...      