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.
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
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.