8 After each monetary policy meeting a press release is published, containing the reasons for the decision made. A press conference is also organised. We have recently decided to make some changes to the Inflation Report. For one thing, it will change its name to ”Monetary Policy Report” with effect from the report published in February, and it will now contain a clear link between the forecasts and the monetary policy decision. The discussion at the monetary policy meetings will be reported around two weeks later in the separate minutes of the meeting. The minutes contain the arguments put forward and show whether any reservations were made against the interest rate decision. In my opinion, we could even go one step further in this field and name the members in the minutes, not merely any reservations against the interest rate decision they might have made. But this is a question that we Executive Board members would have to decide together. We Executive Board members hold around thirty speeches every year, where we can describe our views of economic developments. The Governor of the Riksbank appears before the Riksdag (Swedish parliament) Committee on Finance twice a year for a discussion of the monetary policy conducted. The Riksbank has also been evaluated by external assessors, who were commissioned by the Committee on Finance. As recently as December last year an evaluation of Swedish monetary policy during the period 1995-2005 was published. The evaluation was made by professors Francesco Giavazzi and Frederic Mishkin.
Monetary policy based on an inflation target was a relatively new phenomenon at that time. There was also great uncertainty about how this would work in Sweden. For those of us who were around during the crisis years, it is particularly pleasing to see how well the Swedish economy has developed over the past ten years, compared with the previous two decades. Naturally, one cannot ascribe all success to the changeover in stabilization policy – the general economic developments have also been favourable. However, there is no doubt that the new regime with an inflation target for monetary policy has given a steadiness and stability to economic policy that was previously lacking. A stable fiscal policy has also been very important. A lot has happened to the monetary policy framework since the inflation target was introduced. This includes much of the learning process I mentioned in my introduction. As deputy governor during the years 1994 to 1998, I was involved in setting the course, so to speak, and when the work on building up competence and analysis tools for the bank’s main tasks - monetary policy and financial stability began. Other important tasks included improving communication and increasing transparency, both internally and externally. It was necessary to win confidence in monetary policy as quickly as possible and this required openness and clarity. Since I returned to the Bank at the beginning of last year, I have been able to note that the Riksbank’s work procedures have continued to develop and modify.