Inflation Targeting: A New Framework for Monetary Policy?

In recent years a number of industrialized countries have adopted a strategy for monetary policy known as `inflation targeting.' We describe how this approach has been implemented in practice and argue that it is best understood as a broad framework for policy, which allows the central bank `constrained discretion,' rather than as an ironclad policy rule in the Friedman sense. We discuss the potential of the inflation-targeting approach for making monetary policy more coherent and transparent, and for increasing monetary policy discipline. Our final section addresses some additional practical issues raised by this approach.