Jim Chalmers flags 'institutional renewal' on the cards for Productivity Commission

A review into the Reserve Bank is already underway, with recommendations due to be delivered to the top money man in March.

But the Treasurer flagged he had his eyes on broader reforms and the Productivity Commission was squarely in his sights.

Speaking on Wednesday morning, Dr Chalmers told ABC he believes there's a "real appetite" in renewing and revitalising economic institutions as part of a wider "institutional renewal".

"I am interested in trying to find a way to maintain a focus on productivity at the Productivity Commission as the key driver of growth in our economy but also look for ways to broaden and deepen its focus on prosperity and progress more broadly," he said.

"I have been having conversations with various experts over the course of the last couple of months about how we go about that, I think it's an important thing for us to consider this year."

Dr Chalmers said he wanted the agencies that provide government with economic policy advice to be "the absolute best they can be" so it was necessary to look at examples around the world to improve it.

"I think its independence is a source of strength. I think it's focus on productivity is a source of strength, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't make it better necessarily," Dr Chalmers said.

"I think we should be engaging right now in this big process of institutional renewal and democratic renewal."

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The comments come months ahead of a final report into the nation's central bank to determine whether changes are needed for it to adequately respond to future economic risks.

The review's panel - which is made up of Professor Renee Fry-McKibbin, Professor Carolyn Wilkins and Dr Gordon de Brouwer - had already flagged it will give the federal government a list of ways the Reserve Bank can be "revitalised".

"The panel is confident it is collecting the breadth and depth of opinion it needs, to provide government with recommendations to revitalise the RBA and prepare it for the years ahead," they said in a statement at an economic forum last month.

Dr Chalmers said the panel's findings would also advise the government on whether Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe should stay in the top job.

The central bank head has been under fire over forward guidance he delivered forecasting rates wouldn't rise until 2024.

Over the course of 2022, the cash rate rose in eight consecutive announcements from 0.1 to 3.10 per cent in December's announcement - the highest rate since 2012.

Dr Lowe apologised to Australians that his advice might have been acted on in the form of more people taking out loans.

"I'm certainly sorry if people listened to what we'd said and then acted on what we had said and now regret what they had done. So that's regrettable. I'm sorry that happened," Dr Lowe told a Senate estimates hearing.