New Joint JVI/Bundesbank Course on Monetary Policy Communication

For the first time, the Joint Vienna Institute (JVI) and the Deutsche Bundesbank (DBB) offered a course on Monetary Policy Communication. The training took place in Vienna during July 15-19, 2019, and brought together participants working in the area, with most coming from communications and monetary policy departments of central banks. The course offered lectures and workshops conducted by the JVI and the DBB staff and benefitted from presentations by representatives of the Austrian National Bank and the National Bank of Poland.

Part of the training was devoted to general aspects of central bank communication. The lectures and workshops dealt with the practical aspects of strategic communication and improving the expertise of participants in developing content for specific communication purposes. Topics included designing communication strategies and building ability to identify target groups for communications.

Another stream of lectures and workshops focused on monetary policy and how communication can enhance its efficiency. Topics of particular interest were central bank transparency, different aspects of monetary policy communication in a forward-looking environment (explaining what and why the central bank needs to communicate) and practices of forward guidance by central bank. One presentation highlighted the challenges of communicating monetary policy related to foreign exchange interventions, with case studies based on the experience of selected central banks in the region.

Case studies drawn from the Eurosystem, the National Bank of Poland, and the Czech National Bank provided additional hands-on examples of how monetary policy communication strategies are designed in a variety of macroeconomic and monetary policy frameworks. One presentation discussed Austria’s experience with analyzing financial literacy determinants based on a survey of the OECD.

The course has shown that there is large demand by central banks to strengthen their monetary policy communication. While substantial progress has been achieved in recent years, participants recognized room for improvement in how their home institutions communicate monetary policy.

The JVI and the DBB will be offering the course again in the future - the 2020 delivery will take place during July 13-17 at the JVI. Apply by April 13, 2020! 

Alexei Miksjuk, Economist, JVI