Reserve Bank at forefront of thinking, book says

The Reserve Bank has been at the forefront of central bank thinking in several key areas, the authors of a history of the bank say.

The authors, led by Victoria University economics lecturer John Singleton, have just launched Innovation and Independence: the Reserve Bank of New Zealand 1973-2002.

They say that the Reserve Bank was the first in the world to define its statutory autonomy around a contractual relationship between Government and Governor as well as the first to adopt inflation targets - an approach which had since been adopted by more than 25 nations.

The book has been published by Auckland University Press and produced with the help of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage's history group.