Monetary policy rules for Russia

The paper reviews the recent conduct of monetary policy and the central bank's rule-based behavior in Russia. Using different policy rules, we test whether the Bank of Russia reacts to changes in inflation, the output gap and the exchange rate in a consistent and predictable manner. Our results indicate that, during the period from 1993 to 2004, the Bank of Russia used monetary aggregates as the main policy instrument. Some estimations provide evidence that the Bank of Russia was more concerned with reducing inflation before 1995, while the priorities shifted towards exchange rate stabilization after 1995. Journal of Comparative Economics 33 (3) (2005) 484-499. CREES, University of Toronto; Kiel University and Kiel Institute for World Economics (IfW); European Commission and Kiel Institute for World Economics (IfW). (c) 2005 Association for Comparative Economic Studies. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.