No.
But most good developed economies allow the central bank to be independent - not controlled by the government.
If the government controls interest rates it will usually use them to win elections at the expense of the economy. For example, they could lower interest rates before an election and claim it was beneficial to the little guy (although it wouldn't be as they would have to raise the rates soon after the election)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_ban...
If you don't know what bad monetary policy does to the country, think Zimbabwe
no they are not,
in many modern economies they realise the need to keep the central bank as a private and separate entity.
the central bank uses policies that deal with the long run, if governments were involved they would have their own agendas, and in the long run, generations change.
as far as i can recall the Chinese central bank still has close ties to the government and its policy makers.
