TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the hypothesis that a central bank's asymmetric preferences are able to explain inflation rate in a developing country. In addition, it seeks to help comprehend movements of inflation rate in Jordan and to understand Central Bank of Jordan preferences regarding inflation rate and output.Design/methodology/approach– A standard monetary model consists of a central bank's loss function and an economy structure is constructed, which acts as a constraint on the central bank's behavior. Then, a distribute‐lag version of the derived model is estimated using ordinary least squares method.Findings– The empirical evidence from the Jordanian economy shows that inflation rate relies on the variances of inflation rate and the variances of output. This finding supports the hypothesis that a central bank's asymmetric loss function is able to justify inflation rate movements. Moreover, the Jordanian central banker prefers higher inflation rate and higher level of output.Originality/value– The paper provides evidence from a developing country regarding the ability of the asymmetric central bank preferences to justify inflation rate movement. In addition, the paper links central banks' losses with the uncertainty level and inflation rate in the economy. VL - 26 IS - 4 SN - 1086-7376 DO - 10.1108/10867370910995690 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/10867370910995690 AU - Sweidan Osama D. PY - 2009 Y1 - 2009/01/01 TI - Asymmetric central bank's preference and inflation rate in Jordan T2 - Studies in Economics and Finance PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 232 EP - 245 Y2 - 2024/09/18 ER -