FT Alphaville " Four trends in central bank-land The central bank bashing doesn't start and end with Bernanke. Central banks just about everywhere make fantastic political punching bags, and the popularity of this tactic is growing. For example: FRANKFURT - As the euro zone crisis shows signs of heating up again, political leaders are once more looking to the European Central Bank for help. Indeed they are: This particular election campaign-driven episode was sparked by Nicholas Sarkozy breaking his "no ECB bashing" pact with Angela Merkel over the weekend. Even Australia's central bank, whose board could be forgiven for thinking they were showing admirable restraint by "taking away the punch bowl," is being roundly beaten up by everyone from TV presenters to union leaders to, er, former political advisors for daring to wait for inflation data before deciding on an all-but-certain rate cut. Which takes us to the next (possible) trend: Central banks are (maybe) moving away from inflation targeting. The M&G Bond Vigilantes have been predicting for a while that inflation targeting will become less central for central banks. And Scott Sumner, a big nominal GDP-targeting proponent, has for some time been pointing to signs of an open-mindedness to move away from inflation targeting within the Fed and BoE. And lo and behold, the Reserve Bank of India appeared to be quite manifestly accepting the challenge on Tuesday: Central banks are not liking the euro. Not such a surprise, as we knew they were increasing their holdings of "other currencies" in general. But the FT's Claire Jones has this interesting story about a survey of central bank reserve managers. Most of them said they felt increasingly averse to the single currency: Central banks are becoming equities-curious. Also from Claire's story: Interesting times. Related links: India cuts growth rates by 50bp in growth gamble - FT The Villain - The Atlantic Money Supply blog - FT This entry was posted by Kate Mackenzie on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 at 11:13 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with ben bernanke, central banks, ecb, European Central Bank, federal reserve, inflation targeting, Monetary policy, NGDP, rba, RBI, Reserve bank of australia, Reserve Bank of India.