Comprehensive monetary policy report from second half

The Central Bank yesterday announced the plans to publish a comprehensive monetary policy report (MPR) under the Forecasting and Policy Analysis System (FPAS), commencing in the second half of this year.

“This would present an analysis of developments as well as projections of key macroeconomic variables. We believe that the communication of these macroeconomic projections will increase transparency, provide clarity on the future trajectories and highlight any risks surrounding such trajectories over the medium term,” Central Bank Governor Prof. W.D. Lakshman said.

In addition, he also revealed that the Central Bank would utilise unconventional data sources to conduct regular analysis to inform the monetary policy decision-making.

“In addition to the use of conventional data sources and methods such as inflation expectations surveys and business outlook surveys, we will continue to use high frequency data from alternative repositories and adopt novel techniques, including machine learning and other data science techniques to enhance our understanding of new developments,” he elaborated. 

 As the world is sailing through challenging times, the Governor stressed that it is crucial to closely monitor monetary and macroeconomic developments domestically and globally with various services to be able to effectively face with renewed and impending challenges.