Reserve Bank of Australia Annual Report – 1991 Other Matters

Media and Information Services

The Bank handled an increasing number and range of enquiries during the year. It also devoted considerable effort to communicating monetary policy and other information to the public through media releases, electronic screen services and addresses to community, business and financial groups.

Articles, speeches and a wide variety of economic and financial statistics are published in the monthly Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin. A new edition of the Occasional Paper Australian Economic Statistics: 1949–50 to 1989–90 was issued in May, and this information was made available for the first time on computer diskette. Papers from two conferences of Pacific Region Central Bankers (held in 1989 and 1990) were published during the year in a volume: Monetary Policy and Market Operations. The Bank hosted a conference in June on the topic of deregulation of financial intermediaries; the proceedings will be published later in 1991. Proceedings of the June 1990 Conference on “The Australian Macro-Economy in the 1980s” were also published during the year.

Through its Economic and Financial Research Fund, the Bank provided modest support for economic research projects at the University of Western Australia, the University of Melbourne and the Bond University Centre for Banking and Finance.

As part of a continuing program of improving communication with banks, the Bank conducted a further seminar for senior commercial bank executives at the H.C. Coombs Centre for Financial Studies during 1990/91. The main areas of discussion were the formulation and implementation of monetary policy, financial supervision and developments in the payments system.

Relations with Other Central Banks and Monetary Authorities

In October 1990 the Bank hosted a conference on domestic monetary policy for Pacific Region central bankers. The countries represented, in addition to Australia, were Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.

In addition to representation at regular meetings of member central banks of the Bank for International Settlements, senior management also attended meetings of the International Monetary Fund, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Asian Development Bank, Pacific Basin Central Bank Conference, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as well as a conference organised by the Bank of Japan's Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies. The Bank has assisted in a number of training programs for staff from other central banks, particularly in the Asia/Pacific region.