Classifications

The following spreadsheets contain, for each group of countries, the full menu classification, the aggregation by target variable and the aggregation by degree of monetary control, as of November 2022. In January 2023 the corresponding spreadsheets for low income, lower middle income, upper middle income and high income countries, as per the World Bank’s classification for 2005, were added.

global (all 186 countries)

advanced economies

emerging economies

low income economies

lower middle income economies

upper middle income economies

high income economies

Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Latin America

Asia emerging and developing

Africa

Caribbean

Other Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (OECCA)

 

The classifications used and their definitions are these (tables taken from the original discussion paper, now published here):

Table 1: The categories of the classification

  full name acronym definition
1 Multiple direct controls MDC multiple exchange rates and/or controls on direct lending, interest rates, etc
2 Pure exchange rate fix PERF exchange rate fixed purely by intervention, no monetary instruments in use
3 Augmented exchange rate fix AERF exchange rate fixed by intervention, some basic monetary instruments in use
4 Pure currency board PCB domestic currency 100% backed by foreign currency, no monetary instruments in use
5 Augmented currency board ACB domestic currency 100% backed by foreign currency, basic monetary instruments in use
6 Unstructured discretion UD ineffective set of instruments and incoherent mix of objectives
7 Loose exchange rate targeting LERT narrow stationary targets not well hit or wider targets attained
8 Loose converging exchange rate targeting LCERT converging narrow targets not well hit or wider targets attained
9 Loose monetary targeting LMT narrow stationary targets not well hit or wider targets attained
10 Loose converging monetary targeting LCMT converging narrow targets not well hit or wider targets attained
11 Loose inflation targeting LIT narrow stationary targets not well hit or wider targets attained
12 Loose converging inflation targeting LCIT converging narrow targets not well hit or wider targets attained
13 Monetary with exchange rate targeting MwERT monetary targets and exchange rate fixes or targets, monetary dominant
14 Exchange rate with monetary targeting ERwMT monetary targets and exchange rate fixes or targets, exchange rate dominant
15 Monetary plus exchange rate targeting M&ERT monetary targets and exchange rate fixes or targets, primacy unclear
16 Monetary with inflation targeting MwIT monetary and inflation targets, monetary dominant
17 Inflation with monetary targeting IwMT monetary and inflation targets, inflation dominant
18 Monetary plus inflation targeting M&IT monetary and inflation targets, primacy unclear
19 Inflation with exchange rate targeting IwERT inflation targets and exchange rate (fixes or) targets, inflation dominant
20 Exchange rate with inflation targeting ERwIT inflation targets and exchange rate (fixes or) targets, exchange rate dominant
21 Inflation plus exchange rate targeting I&ERT inflation targets and exchange rate (fixes or) targets, primacy unclear
22 Exchange rate, monetary, inflation targeting ER&M&IT three full targets (or fixes), whichever dominant
23 Loosely structured discretion LSD instruments not effective or objectives not coherent or both only partly so
24 Use of another sovereign’s currency UASC dollarisation or euroization
25 Currency union membership CU currency union
26 Full exchange rate targeting FERT narrow announced stationary targets typically attained
27 Full converging exchange rate targeting FCERT narrow announced converging targets typically attained
28 Full monetary targeting FMT narrow announced stationary targets typically attained
29 Full converging monetary targeting FCMT narrow announced converging targets typically attained
30 Full inflation targeting FIT narrow announced stationary targets typically attained
31 Full converging inflation targeting FCIT narrow announced converging targets typically attained
32 Well structured discretion WSD full and effective set of monetary instruments and coherent set of objectives

That set of frameworks is very detailed, too detailed for many purposes, and some of the categories are far from frequent. But the classification has been constructed in such a way that it can be easily aggregated. Two such aggregations are shown in Table 4, but researchers may also want to aggregate the frameworks in some different way themselves:

Table 4: Two useful  aggregations

by target variable: frameworks Numbers
direct controls MDC 1
exchange rate fix ERF PERF, AERF, PCB 2,3,4
exchange rate targets ERTs ACB, FERT, FCERT, LERT, LCERT 5,7,8,26,27
monetary target MTs FMT, FCMT, LMT, LCMT 9,10,28,29
inflation target ITs FIT, FCIT, LIT, LCIT 11,12,30,31
mixed targets MwERT, ERwMT, M&ERT, MwIT, IwMT, M&IT, IwERT, ERwIT, I&ERT, ER&M&IT 13-22
unstructured discretion UD 6
loosely structured discretion LSD 23
well structured discretion WSD 32
no national framework (NNF) UASC, CU 24,25
by degree of monetary control    
rudimentary MDC, PERF 1,2
intermediate AERF, PCB, UD 3,4,6
substantial ACB, all LC*T, all FC*T, all L*T, all mixes, LSD 5,7-12,13-23, 27,29,31
intensive FERT, FMT, FIT, WSD 26,28,30,32

Precise definitions and related explanations can also be found in the original discussion paper, now published here.