The statement provides an account of the main aspects of economic developments that have had a bearing on the interest rate decision and the Board’s assessments. If you compare the Board’s policy statement with, for example, the minutes from the MPC meetings at the Bank of England, you will see that our statement is remarkably similar to the first part of the MPC’s minutes. In addition to the monetary policy statement, a press conference is held the same day. At the press conferences, which are webcast on Norges Bank's website, the governor or I explain in more detail the reasons behind the Board's decision. Together, the policy statement and the press conference provide quite thorough information about the assessments behind the interest rate decisions. Some might object that the policy statement can hardly give much information about the deliberations during the Board meeting, since it is published only a few hours after the meeting and thus has to be prepared in advance. However, when preparing the statement, the staff aims at following the bureaucratic principle that all relevant aspects should be considered. In the final statement, which is written after the meeting, the various aspects are weighed according to the importance attached to them by the Board members. Moreover, the Board has meetings with the staff in the period before the Monetary Policy Report is published. At these meetings, the main issues of relevance for the next rate decision are discussed, and these discussions are reflected in the statements.
Jean-Pierre Roth: Ten years’ experience in steering interest rates – taking stock of the Swiss National Bank’s monetary policy strategy Summary of a speech by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the University of Fribourg, Fribourg, 20 November 2009. The complete speech can be found in French on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  The Swiss National Bank’s monetary policy strategy has proved successful over the ten years since its introduction. Throughout this period, the SNB fulfilled its mandate of ensuring price stability while taking into account economic developments. The inflation forecasts, produced quarterly on the basis of various indicators, have proved especially useful. It has always been possible to successfully manage the Libor – the operational objective of the SNB’s monetary policy – despite an international environment which, at times, has been extremely turbulent. The Libor was maintained within a range intended to provide the bestpossible conditions for a favourable development of the Swiss economy.