Sun narrative monetary policy index for China

Sun (2018) develops a narrative index to comprehensively measure the PBC's policy stance (Sun-MP index), based on the additional information on policy-makers’ intentions extracted from the PBC's documents. It is a five-value index on a quarterly basis. The policy stance of -2 stands for strong easing, indicating a strong emphasis on promoting real growth; 2 for strong tightening that indicates a strong policy emphasis on inflation reduction; -1 for easing and 1 for tightening, indicating mild emphases on real growth and inflation control, respectively; 0 for a neutral monetary policy stance.

The Sun-MP index measures the general monetary conditions in China from 2000q1 to 2019q4 on a quarterly basis, referring to the PBC's mandate - economic growth and price stability. It is updated regularly (every year). A comparable narrative index but that measures the PBC's policy actions to safeguard financial stability can be found in Klingelhöfer and Sun (2019) [Macroprudential Policy, Central Banks and Financial Stability: Evidence from China, JIMF 93: 19-41].