The evolution of central bank communication as experienced by the South Africa Reserve Bank

Gideon du Rand, Ruan Erasmus, Hylton Hollander, Monique Reid and Dawie van Lill

Economic History of Developing Regions, 2021, vol. 36, issue 2, 282-312

Abstract: Communication has evolved into a cornerstone of central bank design and policy implementation. The South African Reserve Bank has been proactive in this regard as well – most notably with the adoption of inflation targeting in 2001. Using novel text-mining techniques, we evaluate the communication of the SARB, as presented via public speeches and monetary policy committee (MPC) statements, in the context of historical developments from 1994 to 2020. Our analysis focuses on the volume, complexity, scope, and sentiment of communication. We conclude that MPC statements are consistently and narrowly focused on the mandate, whereas speeches capture more detail about how the thinking of SARB policy makers evolves over time. In both cases, communication serves as a channel to reduce uncertainty and build credibility in the public domain.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20780389.2021.1925106 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:282-312

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rehd20

DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1925106

Access Statistics for this article

Economic History of Developing Regions is currently edited by Alex Klein and Alfonso Herranz-Loncan

More articles in Economic History of Developing Regions from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().