Monetary Policy Rules in Some Transition Economies

Abstract

In this paper we examine the question of whither monetary rules or ad hoc monetary policies were followed during the early stages of transition and in response to the global financial crisis. We study Eastern European countries and thee CIS countries. We find that during the early of transition, both developed economies and economies in transition used the monetary base, as well as the interest rate, as the main tools for monetary policy. However, in response to the global crises, priority was given to the main objective such as containing inflation and supporting economic growth. Monetary authorities had the additional possible choice of alternative objectives, such as stabilization of nominal exchange rate and real effective exchange rate, or increase in reserves. It was found that countries mostly retained priorities of monetary policy and some of them gave a greater importance to the alternative objectives.