Flexible, with philosophy intact
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Flexible, with philosophy intact

In an interview with Euromoney, Bundesbank vice-president Johann Wilhelm Gaddum outlined the Bundesbank's thoughts on maintaining influence after Emu and touches on the gold revaluation issue. Here are some of his main points:

Bundesbank: Not quite dead


"Above all we want the European Central Bank to be committed to a stable currency policy. Whether that is achieved using M3 as the main yardstick or via an inflationary target is more a question of implementation. Even the Bundesbank has gone through different trends. Finding the best way to reach these targets requires agility and flexibility."

He acknowledges that a de facto single monetary policy stance might have to begin even before the official start of Emu at the beginning in 1999: "There are many indications that it won't be possible to leave the decision on conversion rates until the end of 1998, even though the [Maastricht] Treaty allows this. We will have to make certain decisions beforehand, so that monetary policy is more strongly harmonized and jointly approved."

But on the precise use of instruments Gaddum is cagey: "I'd like to avoid prescribing a catalogue of new dogmas. People think German policy is far more dogmatic than it really is. Just think how far we've changed our minimum reserve requirements over the past eight years. And that's without modifying a single gram of Bundesbank philosophy."


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