The Magyar Nemzeti Bank attaches great importance to  making central bank analyses on various current economic and financial trends of general interest available to the wider public. The October 2012 issue of the MNB Bulletin provides an overview of households’ perceptions about the security of the various payment methods; discusses the latest developments in the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy; presents the ‘early warning’ system designed for use in macroprudential regulation by the central bank; takes an account of developments in external borrowing by the individual sectors; and analyses the debates about fiscal adjustment within the European Union. In addition, the current issue contains a report on the 11th Macroeconomic Research Workshop hosted by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank jointly with the CEPR and, for the first time, features an interview with Fabio Canova, professor at European University Institute, Florence.

Divéki, Éva and Dániel Listár: Better safe than sorry: views of the Hungarian public on the security of payment instruments

Felcser, Dániel and Kristóf Lehmann: The Fed’s inflation target and the background of its announcement

Holló, Dániel: Identifying imbalances in the Hungarian banking system (‘early warning’ system)

Koroknai, Péter and Rita Lénárt-Odorán: Developments in external borrowing by individual sectors

Szalai, Zoltán: A crisis of crisis management? Debates over fiscal adjustments in the European Monetary Union

Serhiy, Stepanchuk: 11th Annual Macroeconomic Policy Research Workshop at MNB: Microeconomic Behavior and its Macroeconomic Implications During the Financial Crisis

Canova, Fabio: Interview with Fabio Canova

The complete volume can be downloaded here:

MNB Bulletin October 2012