The Federal Reserve System collects and disseminates a variety of monetary statistics including interest rates, money supplies, and foreign exchange tariffs. In the current surveys of business conditions published by the Board and the Federal Reserve banks, economic data summarized are made available to the business community. These publications and the activities of other Government and private agencies in the gathering and interpretation of information concerning current economic conditions are contributed to a better understanding of the factors at work in the business situation and appreciation of the relation between commercial movement and the volume of credit. The circumstances which had unavoidably led central banking administrations in all countries to exercise a more direct judgment concerning credit conditions and needs than was necessary for periods when gold standards functioned as an effective regulator of international trade and economic movement. Under the conditions that are formally obtained, an action for central banks largely determined by force that was registered in changes in its reserve position.
Over time, the Federal Reserve continuously assess the use of monetary policy. In cases in which the Federal Reserve compiles and publishes the data, the Board seeks to revise its statistical program appropriately, taking into account ongoing developments in the economy and the financial system as well as both the benefits and the costs of data collection. Seemingly there is a time research suggested that a broad measure of nonfinancial sector debt should receive consideration attention in monetary policy making, and the board began publishing monthly data in such aggregate (Greenspan 11). Over subsequent years, policy experience and accumulating empirical evidence indicated that some of these aggregates – in particular, domestic non-financial sector debt at a monthly frequency and the broadest aggregate were not particularly useful in the conduct of policy.
Works Cited
Greenspan, Alan. "Federal Reserve Board’s semiannual monetary policy report to the Congress." February 16 (2005): 2005. http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/mpr_default.htm
