DP2726 Inflation Targeting in a Small Open Economy

• Alan Sutherland
27 Mar 2001

A small open economy model is presented, which allows explicit treatment of uncertainty and its effects on macroeconomic behaviour. Inflation targeting is compared to the welfare maximizing monetary rule and to a fixed nominal exchange rate. It is found that flexible inflation targeting produces too little exchange rate volatility compared to the optimal rule but delivers higher welfare than a fixed nominal exchange rate. Strict inflation targeting also delivers higher welfare than a fixed rate. In addition it is found that the welfare-maximizing monetary rule can be replicated if the central bank?s objective function includes the nominal exchange rate.