Discussion of News and Interest Rate Expectations: A Study of Six Central Banks

While I fi nd the paper interesting, the results provide somewhat of a puzzle. If central bank communication does not affect the predictability of interest rates, why do central banks talk so much? As an example, since 1999 the six members of the Executive Board of Sveriges Riksbank (the central bank of Sweden) gave in combination an average of about 35 speeches per year. On top of that, some speeches are published as press releases, and since 1999 the Riksbank has published about 80 press releases per year on average. Taken together, the speeches and press releases amount to more than two pieces of central bank communication every week of the year. In other words, in reality central banks communicate quite frequently, which seems puzzling in light of the fi ndings by Ellis and Marion. In my discussion I will focus on some methodological issues that may at least partly explain this.