RBA Annual Conference – 1989 Foreword

This Volume brings together the papers presented to a Conference held by the Reserve Bank of Australia on 20 June 1989. The venue was the H.C. Coombs Centre for Financial Studies, Kirribilli. Participants were drawn from a variety of backgrounds, mainly academic economists, business economists, and Government officials.

The papers presented on this occasion were all produced within the Research Department of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the eighteen months preceding the conference. The theme that runs through all of them is the formulation of monetary policy in a changing world. One paper deals with the international experience, two deal with the stability of financial relationships, one deals with changes in institutional behaviour, and the final paper presents a theoretical re-examination of the instrument/intermediate objective/ultimate objective framework. Research of this type is obviously necessary for central banks; the additional step of opening it to debate among outside experts, interested parties, and possible critics is a contribution to improving both the quality of the research and the level of economic debate in Australia.

The Bank is proposing to hold a similar conference in 1990 on topics related to central banking responsibilities. Hopefully, it will become an important annual event.

M.J. Phillips
Deputy Governor