Parliament's finance and expenditure select committee has appointed economist Donal Curtin as its first independent adviser on monetary policy.
The appointment stems from a review of the Reserve Bank last year by Professor Lars Svensson. He recommended an outside expert be appointed to strengthen the committee's oversight of the bank.
FEC chair Mark Peck says there are no plans to change the practice under which Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash appears before the committee within an hour of releasing his quarterly monetary policy statements.
Curtin was previous chief economist at the Bank of New Zealand and later headed its national private banking unit. He is now the managing director of his own consulting firm Economics New Zealand.
