The Central Bank of Iceland will publish its quarterly Peningamál (in Icelandic) on its website one month later than hitherto, i.e. in March, June, September and December. These months are more convenient for organising tasks connected with publication and are considered generally more suitable for presenting the Bank's forecasts and analyses than the previous publication dates. The English version (Monetary Bulletin) will as before be posted on the website as soon as the translations of individual articles are available.

In consultation with the Office of the Prime Minister, the Central Bank has also decided to publish comprehensive macroeconomic and inflation forecasts twice a year instead of on a quarterly basis. Forecasts will be published in the June and December issues of Peningamál (Monetary Bulletin). Forecasts will be published more frequently if the Bank sees grounds for doing so, either in the form of updates or new comprehensive forecasts. Issues of Peningamál (Monetary Bulletin) which do not include macroeconomic and inflation forecasts will nonetheless present analyses of economic and monetary developments and make an assessment of changes from previous forecasts. The next issue of Peningamál, to be published in March, will contain an update to the Bank's forecast from November.

Given the enormous amount of work involved in its production, the benefits of publishing a comprehensive macroeconomic and inflation forecast on a quarterly basis instead of twice year are not considered worth the effort. Another consideration is that much better macroeconomic balance now prevails compared with immediately after the 2½% inflation target for monetary policy was set in March 2001. It is hoped that inflation will remain less volatile, reducing the need for such frequent forecasting. Many other central banks with comparable inflation-targeting frameworks publish regular inflation forecasts two or three times a year.

Studies of financial stability will be included in the March and September issues of Peningamál (Monetary Bulletin), i.e. those which do not contain comprehensive macroeconomic and inflation forecasts.

Accordingly, the following publication dates have been set for the Icelandic editions of Monetary Bulletin in 2004: March 17, June 1,September 17 and December 2. As before, an English translation of the introduction will be published on the Bank's website www.sedlabanki.is at the same time and other chapters as soon as the translation is available.

For further information contact Birgir Ísleifur Gunnarsson, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Central Bank of Iceland, and Már Guðmundsson, Chief Economist, tel. (+354) 569-9600.

No. 3/2004

January 19, 2004