Interesting publication from the Markets Committee of the BIS yesterday. It does a pretty full comparison of the practices of 16 of the major world central banks, covering what their targets are, how they carry out any prudential functions they have and lots of information on how they carry out their other duties.

The 16 covered are the members of the committee: Reserve Bank of Australia, Central Bank of Brazil, Bank of Canada, People’s Bank of China, Eurosystem (European Central Bank plus the national central banks of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain), Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Reserve Bank of India, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, Bank of Mexico, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Sveriges Riksbank, Swiss National Bank, Bank of England and Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

It is a very useful start for anyone researching the operations of the central banks and for general information on them.
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(Updated – link changed so you do not have to go hunting through the site from the press release. Th

anks Sadashiv)