Economic research bulletin (2011, No.1)

The first article gives a fairly general description of how monetary policy was conducted in a group of developed countries during the last three decades and shows how interest rate setting changed in response to various changes in the institutional framework, such as the adoption of inflation targeting. The second article tackles the classical issue of the money and inflation nexus. Although the benefits of money in policy analysis have been questioned by many commentators, the forecasting exercises carried out in this article lend some support to the role of money for policy analysis. The third article investigates the main channels of monetary transmission mechanisms and finds a well-functioning monetary transmission in the Czech Republic. Last but not least, the fourth article deals with the question of how the Czech National Bank is viewed by the media. The authors show that even surprising policy moves do not reduce the favourableness of media assessment, and emphasise the role of timely and clear central bank communication in this respect