IESET.
Policies·nz_official_cash_rate_introduction_1999

RBNZ Official Cash Rate introduction

NZL·1999 – ·enacted 1999-03-17candidate
movescentral bank independence↑

What the policy did

Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced 17 March 1999 replacement of the Monetary Conditions Index (MCI) with the Official Cash Rate (OCR) as operational tool. Cleaner signalling mechanism consistent with inflation-targeting 0-3% CPI band. First meeting 17 March 1999 set OCR at 4.5%.

Policy-content fingerprint — what this policy moved, on which axes

Per invariant 3, reforms are scored by what they did on each channel-separated axis, not by the party that enacted them. This fingerprint is how the policy-match engine finds historical analogues.

intended
↑
central bank independence
monetary.central_bank_independence
De jure and de facto independence of the central bank from fiscal authority. Per D.1.5 scope, one of the framework's defensible monetary positions.
increased · weak
greater independence (legal, operational, personnel)
Cleaner operational tool improved transparency of policy stance.

Enacted by

Empirical evidence — linked hypotheses

Explicit links are curated by the author. Inferred links are hypotheses in the library that test the same axes this policy moved — the framework's answer to "what does the data say about a policy like this?".

Truss 2022 mini-budget shows that unfunded fiscal expansion above the ZLB triggers sharp bond-market and currency responses through expected-inflation and risk-premium channels.
unfunded_fiscal_expansion_above_zlb_bond_market_responseinferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
SUPPORTED — GBP/USD trough on 2022-09-26 (1.0703) was 5.02% below the 2022-09-22 pre-announcement close (1.1269); log-decline +0.0515 clears the 3.0% threshold …
supported
UK Truss mini-budget 2022 gilt crisis reflected market confidence and institutional-framework rupture rather than an MMT-predicted hard fiscal limit, because the BoE restored order by intervening as issuer.
uk_truss_mini_budget_currency_sovereign_mechanisminferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
partial — Both mechanism legs are directionally consistent but at least one fails the SUPPORTED threshold: FX leg holds (5.02% trough decline); yield leg partia…
partial
The September 2022 UK gilt-market dysfunction had its operative amplification mechanism in the foreign-currency-collateral exposure of the Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) leveraged-derivative chain in the UK pension system, not in a "fiscal limit" reached by the sovereign issuer.
truss_2022_currency_user_ldi_collateral_mechanisminferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING — no outcome variable loaded; missing: ['boe:IUDLG7N', 'boe:IUDMNZC', 'boe:gilt_volatility (manual); ice:UK_gilt_options', 'fred:DEXUS…
run pending
Across countries 1990-2023, higher de jure and de facto central-bank independence predicts lower mean CPI inflation and lower inflation volatility, conditional on a basic set of controls (exchange-rate regime, trade openness, fiscal balance, initial inflation level).
central_bank_independence_inflation_disciplineinferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
PARTIAL — coef=+9.05e-17, p=0.747; effect magnitude effectively zero
partial
UK GDP per capita (PPP, constant international dollars) diverged negatively from a matched synthetic counterfactual of similar-income anglophone/developed economies (USA, CAN, AUS, NZL, DEU, NLD, CHE) starting around 2008 and widening post-2016 (Brexit referendum).
uk_economic_decline_multi_movementinferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING — treatment 'uk_post_2008' has no within-country variation under country fixed effects
run pending
Every documented hyperinflation episode since 1900 (Weimar Germany, post-WW2 Hungary, Yugoslavia 1990s, Zimbabwe 2000s, Venezuela 2010s-2020s, among others) was preceded by fiscal dominance — a state of affairs where monetary policy is subordinated to financing government deficits that cannot be financed by taxation or market-rate borrowing.
hyperinflation_requires_fiscal_dominanceinferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING — no outcome variable loaded; missing: ['hanke:hyperinflation_table']
run pending
Argentine monthly CPI inflation declines from its late-2023 peak (around 25% month-on-month in December 2023 following the 54% peso devaluation) to below 5% month-on-month within 12 months of Milei's December 2023 inauguration, and below 3% month-on- month within 18 months.
milei_reforms_reduce_argentine_inflationinferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING - INDEC IPC Nacional vintage missing from local data/vintages; expected indec:148.3_INIVELNAL_DICI_M_26 (indec:148.3_INIVELNAL_DICI_M_…
run pending
Japan post-1990 has run gross public-debt-to-GDP ratios from ~70% rising to ~250%, the highest sustained level in the OECD record, WITHOUT triggering inflation, currency collapse, sovereign-spread blowout, or fiscal-dominance-induced loss of monetary control.
fiscal_dominance_japan_debt_non_crisisinferred
viamonetary.central_bank_independence
INCONCLUSIVE_PENDING_DATA
run pending

Similar historical policies

Ranked by axis-fingerprint overlap with this policy. Direction match bolded — those are the closest historical analogues. Shape of the match is what drives policy-outcome comparison, not the country or party label.

Convertibility Plan (Plan Cavallo) — Argentina 1991-2002
ARG·1991
match
0.7
central bank independence
Austrian Hartwährungspolitik — schilling peg to DM 1976
AUT·1976
match
0.7
central bank independence
Hawke-Keating reform package (1983-1996)
AUS·1983
match
0.7
central bank independence
Hawke-Keating market reforms — Australia 1983-1996
AUS·1983
match
0.7
central bank independence
New Economic Policy — Decree 21060 (Bolivia stabilisation 1985)
BOL·1985
match
0.7
central bank independence
Banco Central Autonomy — Lei Complementar 179/2021
BRA·2021
match
0.7
central bank independence
Brazil inflation-targeting adoption (Decreto 3.088/1999)
BRA·1999
match
0.7
central bank independence
Plano Real — Brazil monetary stabilisation 1994
BRA·1994
match
0.7
central bank independence

References