Economic literature suggests that, at an aggregated level, the adoption of more flexible exchange rate regimes in Emerging Market (EM) countries has been associated with greater monetary policy independence. EM countries with exchange rate anchors are generally associated with pegged regimes. Here, the exchange rate serves as the nominal anchor or intermediate target of monetary policy. Around 27 per cent of the EM countries followed exchange rate anchors at the end of April 2006 (Table). When the exchange rate is directly targeted in order to achieve price stability, intervention operations are unsterilised with inter-bank interest rates adjusting fully. In Singapore, while pursuing a target band for the exchange rate is the major monetary policy instrument, the central bank’s decision on whether to sterilise intervention is made with reference to conditions in the domestic markets. In other regimes, where the exchange rate is not the 1monetary policy anchor, any liquidity impact of intervention that would cause a change in monetary conditions is generally avoided. Most foreign exchange operations are sterilised. Interventions may also be used in coordination with changes in monetary policy, giving the latter a greater room for manoeuvre. For example, where a change in monetary policy is unexpected,surprising the market can erode confidence or destabilise the market. Intervention may help minimise the costs of surprising financial markets, allowing monetary policy greater capacity to move ahead of market expectations.