CNB to announce monetary policy decisions at 1 p.m. as of 2010

The Bank Board of the Czech National Bank will announce its monetary policy decisions at a fixed time, namely 1 p.m., beginning in 2010.

The Bank Board of the Czech National Bank has decided to introduce a fixed time for the announcement of its monetary policy decisions as from 2010.

The CNB will announce the Bank Board’s monetary policy decision at 1 p.m. on the day of the meeting. The press conference on the Bank Board’s monetary policy decision will regularly start at 2.30 p.m.

The new rules will for the first time be applied to the monetary policy decision taken at the Bank Board’s meeting scheduled for 4 February 2010.

The changes are aimed at bringing the CNB’s system into line with the best practice followed by many major central banks and is motivated by the CNB’s long-running commitment to making monetary policy transparent, comprehensible and therefore credible.

The fixed time for the policy announcement will provide the public – and above all market participants and the media, who are the initial users of this information – with an anchor that will eliminate the time uncertainty and potential speculation associated with the release time of the Bank Board’s decision on monetary policy.

Marek Petruš, CNB spokesman