The president of the European Central Bank (ECB) Mr Wim Duisenberg yesterday pledged to publish its internal economic forecasts "in the course of next year".
His promise came a day after Prof Otmar Issing, ECB's chief economist, defended the bank's reluctance to publish its forecasts because they would not convey accurately the complexity of its thinking.
Mr Duisenberg's move goes some way towards meeting demands from the European Parliament for greater transparency in the ECB's monetary policy. It also matches moves by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan to open up.
Mr Duisenberg told MEPs it would be premature to consider the step too soon in case it put the ECB's credibility at risk. But he was confident the technical issues could be overcome and publication of the forecasts could be considered in the course of next year.
Departing from his text, he added: "And then we will." Ultimately, the ECB would publish its economic models.
The governor of the Bank of France, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, said last night that he was open to the idea of publishing the ECB's fore casts. "We will decide whether it is appropriate or not," he added. "At the moment, we rely very much on our collective wisdom."
The ECB, which is just over a year old, has been making efforts since the summer to make its deliberations more open.
Its September monthly report on the euro-zone economy included some forecasts.
However the ECB president's U-turn met only one of four calls for greater transparency in its operations in a European Parliament report drawn up by Mr Christopher Huhne, a British Liberal Democrat MEP and former financial journalist.
Mr Duisenberg either expressed opposition or failed to comment on demands from the MEPs for:
summary minutes after meetings of the governing council, giving the different views in the council and the reasoning used in reaching decisions;
the ECB president to make himself available "as a matter or urgency" to parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee after significant decisions;
regular comparable reports on economic developments in each of the euro-zone states.
Mr Duisenberg said the information given by the ECB in press conferences after meetings of its governing council, plus the analysis provided in its monthly reports, came "very close in substance to the publication of summary minutes".
He rejected the idea of reports on each euro-zone state because they would be misleading and run counter to the creation of a euro-zone area perspective in conducting and discussing monetary policy.
Mr Huhne said regular publication of the bank's forecasts was "absolutely essential" so the parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee could see how its thinking was developing.
He predicted the ECB would move towards greater transparency.
The parliament report noted that the ECB was less transparent than the US, Japanese, British and Swedish central banks, which reported both sides of the argument on monetary actions.
Pushing for still further transparency, the Liberal Democrats called separately on the ECB to publish, after a two-year lapse, the names of council members voting for and against monetary decisions, as well as the details of its econometric models for the euro and world economies.
