The impact of monetary policy candidness on Australian financial markets

In January 1990, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) changed from a covert disclosure policy to an overt disclosure policy. Using a sample from January 1986 to September 2001, this paper examines the reaction of Australian financial markets to rate target changes within each of these disclosure regimes. We find significantly different announcement day responses between the two disclosure regimes for both short-term and long-term treasury securities, and equity indices. Overall, the results indicate that when monetary policy is more transparent, the market reaction is less pronounced and, therefore, we conclude that fuller disclosure of monetary policy allows investors to more optimally manage their portfolios.