The interest rate decisions reached by the Monetary Committee are reported to the public through a press release that is published with a fixed structure on the Bank of Israel’s website.  The structure of the notices published until now contained two parts: The first included detailed information on the background conditions presented to the Monetary Committee when it made its decision, and the second was one page containing the main factors in the decision.  Two weeks following the decision, minutes of the Monetary Committee discussion held to reach the decision are published.  As the Bank of Israel announced on September 20, 2016, the interest rate decisions will now be made 8 times per year.

Beginning with the upcoming interest rate decision, the structure of the notices will be changed.  The new structure will be shorter, and will present the economic situation as seen by the Monetary Committee during the discussion held to reach its decision on the interest rate.  The beginning of the notice will present a few short sentences summarizing the state of the economy, and will be followed by a broader review of the economy.  The verbal details of the changes in the economic variables since the last decision (“background conditions”) will be replaced by a separate file that will be published together with the notice, which will contain graphs and tables that will include the main data presented to the Monetary Committee by the various departments in the Bank during the discussion in the broad forum prior to the decision.  This structure is consistent with the lower frequency of interest rate decisions, and gives greater weight to analysis of the fundamental trends.

The summary of the Committee’s discussions that is published two weeks after the decision will include only a report on the discussion held by the Committee in the narrow forum in order to reach the decision.

Bank of Israel Governor Dr. Karnit Flug said, “We are constantly examining how to improve the communication of monetary policy to the public and how to make it clearer and more transparent.  As part of this effort, we began holding quarterly press briefings two years ago regarding monetary policy.  The change in the structure of the notice is another step intended to help the public better understand the Monetary Committee’s considerations in making its decisions.”​

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