Monetary Policy Week in Review - 19 May 2012

The past week in monetary policy was relatively quiet on the interest rate front, with just Iceland changing rates; adding 50 basis points to 5.50%, and Chile's central bank holding its interest rate unchanged at 5.00%.  Outside of monetary policy decisions there was monetary policy committee meeting minutes out from Australia and the US.  The Reserve Bank of Australia explained some points about it's recent 50bp rate cut, meanwhile the US Federal Reserve FOMC voiced doubts on the strength of the recovery.  The Bank of England also released its regular inflation report.

Looking at the central bank calendar, the week ahead is also scheduled to be a relatively quiet week with just the Bank of Japan and South African Reserve Banks set to meet.  Both will surely keep rates unchanged, but the question mark would hang over the Bank of Japan's asset purchase program.  Outside of that, the Bank of England is set to release its Monetary Policy Committee meeting minutes.  Europe and China have the much watched flash PMI economic indicators due out later in the week, and New Zealand has inflation expectations data and the annual Government budget due out in the week ahead.

May-23	JPY	Japan	Bank of Japan
May-24	ZAR	South Africa	South African Reserve Bank

Source: www.CentralBankNews.info

Article source: http://www.centralbanknews.info/2012/05/monetary-policy-week-in-review-19-may.html