01833cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF001795 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451874891 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Jacome, Luis. Legal Central Bank Independence and Inflation in Latin America During the 1990s / Luis Jacome. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2001. 1 online resource (41 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students This paper reviews central banks' legal reform in Latin America during the 1990s and discusses the status of central bank independence in the region. Based on this information, it builds a simplified index of central bank independence which, in addition to the commonly used criteria of political and economic independence, incorporates provisions of central banks' financial autonomy, accountability, and lender-of-last-resort. The paper finds a moderate negative correlation between increased central bank independence and inflation during 1999-2001 in 14 Latin American countries. Dissagregating the index, the same analysis suggests that economic independence is the key component driving the observed negative correlation between legal central bank independence and inflation. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2001/212 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2001/212/001.2001.issue-212-en.xml IMF e-Library