Inflation,oil prices and exchange rates. The Euro’s dampening effect

This paper aims to analyse the relationship between the euro/dollar exchange rate and oil prices and examine what effect this relationship had on the transmission of oil price fluctuations to headline inflation in the euro area since the currency’s creation. We estimate an augmented Phillips curve including changes in oil price, through which we study the role of the exchange rate in oil price pass-through by using different specifications. The main findings reveal a positive relationship between the euro/dollar exchange rate and oil prices, such that an increase in the price of oil is followed by an appreciation in the euro. We also find that the transmission of oil price fluctuations to headline inflation in the euro area has been partially dampened by this appreciation in the euro/dollar exchange rate. These results do not hold for other economies with internationally relevant currencies, such as Japan and the United Kingdom. These findings have important implications for the implementation of monetary policy in the euro area in the face of oil price shocks.     

Inflation targeting and the exchange rate: Does it matter in Turkey?

This paper investigates the monetary policy reaction functions of the Central Bank of Republic of Turkey (CBRT) over the periods 1987:01–2001:12 and 2002:01–2009:05. We specifically attempt to shed light on question to what extent exchange rate developments still continue to influence monetary policy, even under inflation targeting. This study seeks to investigate how the monetary policy responded to the exchange rate shocks before and after adoption of inflation targeting regime. How large the effect of exchange rate shocks is accounted for in forecast error variances decompositions for monetary policy as compared to other shocks? Using the VAR model, this study shows that there has been strong pass-through during whole period. Moreover, in the postcrisis period, exchange rate has been the main reaction variable for the CBRT.     

Real and financial shocks,exchange rate regimes and the probability of a currency crisis

We analyze the relationships among shocks, exchange rate regimes, and capital controls in relation to the probability of a currency crisis. Based on the theoretical model by Nakatani (2016, 2017a), we use panel data on 34 developing countries and apply a probit estimation. We find that both productivity shocks and risk premium shocks trigger currency crises, whereas productivity shocks are important for severe currency crises. We also find that the effects of these shocks on the probability of a crisis are larger for floating exchange rate regimes and that capital controls mitigate the effects of productivity shocks in pegged regimes.     

Channels of monetary policy transmission in Vietnam

Since the economic reforms launched in 1986, the Vietnamese economy has registered impressive economic growth. While foreign investment is providing much needed capital, through the conduct of monetary policy, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), which is an integral part of the government of Vietnam, is also playing an important role in nurturing the economic growth. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the success of the SBV policies. Monetary policy actions affect all sectors of real economies with a significant lag. Without a good understanding of the transmission mechanism, monetary policy actions may not achieve the desired outcomes. Using quarterly data from 1995 to 2010, this paper focuses on monetary policy transmission mechanisms in Vietnam. Specifically, we consider the dynamic response of the Vietnamese economy to interest rate, exchange rate and foreign shocks. The estimated results based on structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) methodology suggest that monetary shocks tend to have a strong influence on Vietnam’s output. We find that Vietnam’s monetary policy is relatively more susceptible to foreign shocks.     

关于人民币汇率管理政策的思考

目前我国宏观经济运行呈现出有效需求不足导致的通货紧缩迹象.采取的扩张性财政与货币政策对这一通货紧缩态势效果不明显,因而应进一步考虑汇率管理方面的改革,尝试利用汇率管理政策的调整来促进中国经济的增长.汇率管理政策与经济增长的各种关系的实施对人民币汇率调整的各种效应及传导机制的影响更有益于目标的实现.加快人民币汇率管理体制改革,对人民币汇率向下进行合理幅度的调整.     

International transmission of monetary and global commodity price shocks to Turkey

This paper explores the international transmission mechanisms on the macroeconomic and monetary variables of Turkey and hence proposes some particular policy implications. The effects of monetary shocks stemming from the U.S. and the European area, and global commodity price shocks are investigated using a structural vector auto-regression (SVAR) approach. For the analysis, we use monthly data from 2002M01 to 2016M06 and we analyze the transmission mechanism in Turkey using two different SVAR model specifications. Our results reveal that shocks coming from the U.S. and the Euro area lead to significantly different responses on industrial production, consumer prices, real effective exchange rates, and the domestic interest rate, with the Euro area monetary expansion having more explicit and positive effects on the real economy. The global commodity price shocks affect the Turkish macroeconomic variables in a similar but much less powerful fashion than that of the U.S. monetary expansion. As our empirical findings point out that the Turkish economy is vulnerable to global monetary and commodity price shocks. This vulnerability necessitates moving to a sustainable growth path consistent with a sustainable current account balance and a sustainable private and government debt coupled with a strengthened macroprudential regime and comprehensive structural reforms.     

Monetary policy and its transmission mechanisms in Eritrea

The main purpose of this study is to identify the best practices of monetary policy implementation in the Eritrean economy. As such, the paper examines what kind of monetary policy and transmission mechanisms are relevant to the Eritrean economy. It also addresses which channels are effective and which are not and why. Vector Autoregressive modelling is employed over the study period 1996Q1–2008Q4. This paper addresses the argument that the bank lending is the sole functioning channel in low income economies. We find that interest rate and official exchange rate channels are inoperative. However, effective exchange rate and credit channels exist through the black foreign exchange market and credit issued to the government sector. The main policy implication of this study is that the Bank of Eritrea might be able to control inflation through manipulating the reserve requirement ratio.     

Interest rate pass-through in the Euro area during the financial crisis: A multivariate regime-switching approach

In this paper we use a Markov-switching vector autoregressive model to analyse the interest rate pass-through between interbank and retail bank rates in the Euro area. Empirical results, based on monthly data for the period 2003–2011, show that during periods of financial distress bank lending rates to both households and non-financial corporations show a reduction of their degree of pass-through from the money market rate. Significant sectoral heterogeneities characterise the transmission mechanism of monetary policy impulses, with rates on loans to non-financial firms being more affected by changes in the interbank rate than loans to households, both in times of high volatility and in normal market conditions.     

Expectations and the inertia of inflation: The case of Indonesia

It has long been recognised that the balance between backward-looking and forward-looking expectations has critical policy implications. This is because backward-looking expectations impart a substantial degree of inertia to the inflation rate whereas forward-looking expectations lead to rapid adjustment in response to shocks. In this paper we examine the policy implications for the Indonesian economy of the form taken by the price adjustment equation. We allow for both backward-looking and forward-looking effects of inflation expectations, proxying forward expectations with the realised rate and using a GMM estimator to allow for the resulting endogeneity. Using monthly data from 1980:1 to 2008:12, our estimates show that CPI inflation in Indonesia is significantly determined by backward-looking inflation expectations, forward-looking inflation expectations, the output gap, exchange rate depreciation, and money growth. However, the backward expectation attracts a significantly higher weight than the forward rate leading to the conclusion that inflation in Indonesia has considerable inertia. The implication of this is that a gradualist monetary policy is likely to be more effective as a means of smoothing fluctuations in inflation and real output.     

An Analysis of the Determinants of the Changes in China＇s Foreign Exchange Reserves＇ Nominal and Real Rates of Return

采用分解和回归方法,考察2002-2009年间中国外汇储备名义收益率与真实收益率变动的原因,可以发现：美国金融市场风险溢价是影响中国外汇储备名义收益率变动的最重要因素,美元汇率和大宗商品价格是影响中国外汇储备真实收益率的最重要因素。基于实证的研究还可以推断：美联储宽松货币政策会提高中国外汇储备名义收益率,但降低了真实收益率;欧洲债务危机对中国外汇储备名义收益率的影响不确定,但很可能提高了真实收益率。     

An Analysis of the Determinants of the Changes in China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves’ Nominal and Real Rates of Return

We use decomposition and regression to examine the reasons for the changes in nominal and real rates of return of China’s foreign exchange reserves between 2002 and 2009. The results show that the US financial market risk premium is the most important determinant of changes in the nominal rate of return, while the US dollar exchange rate and the bulk commodity price are the two key determinants of changes in the real rate of return. From empirically based research, one may conclude that the loose monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve increases China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but decreases the real rate of return and that the European debt crisis has an uncertain impact on China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but may well raise the real rate of return.     

浅析我国货币政策独立性与通货膨胀的关系——兼论2011年通胀

本轮自2008年底开始的经济衰退,在"适度宽松的货币政策"及积极财政政策的配合作用下,经济增长很快走出了低谷,效果明显。但自2010年下半年尤其是2011年却出现了较高的通货膨胀。本文从货币政策独立性的角度分析了通胀形成的原因。认为中央银行缺乏足够的独立性、财政政策货币化、缺乏弹性的汇率制度导致货币政策缺乏独立性,使得货币供应量失控并导致了通货膨胀。     

Modeling interest rate cycles in India

The present study tries to examine the behaviour of various Indian interest rates such as call money rate, and yields on secondary market securities with maturity periods of 15–91 days, 1-year, 5-years and 10-years. In the first stage, the study investigates the determinants of interest rates and finds that although the interest rates depend on some domestic macroeconomic variables such as yield spread and expected exchange rate, they are mainly affected by the movements of international interest rates, although with some lags. The policy variables such as Bank Rate and Federal Funds Rate did not show any significant impact on any of the interest rates. Further, it was found that the interest rates in the very recent period show some cyclical movements similar to that of the developed countries. Future behaviour of interest rates show that the present cycle of each interest rate would peak at different time points. This expected behaviour in domestic interest rates could be due to the integration of the domestic economy with the international money and financial market. This trend may be same in most of the emerging economies of Asia.     

我国货币政策失效的原因分析及对策

1997年以来,我国的货币政策在经济增长中起到了一定的作用,但也存在一些失效,主要表现在利率机制、准备金政策、公开市场业务等方面存在缺陷。因此,必须不断完善我国的货币政策,以便更好地为经济增长提供政策指导。     

Does gold act as a safe haven against exchange rate fluctuations? The case of Pakistan rupee

Investors often look for a refuge to avoid undesirable exposures to risk during period of extreme downturns in currency returns. We investigate daily gold and rupee exchange rates depreciation against set of currencies over the period of 1992–2015. Using wavelets at multiple time horizons; we find that gold act as a consistent short run hedge against exchange rate hence validating the exchange rate destruction hypothesis. This finding is helpful for speculators in their decision making while taking long and short positions accordingly. This finding suggests that central bank also need to keep other safe haven assets in reserves because the hedging ability of gold is only limited to short run. Further, the role of gold in providing protection against currency risks is also confirmed using quantile regression. These results assist portfolio managers and governments in formulating effectual diversification strategy for preserving investment portfolio during extreme event condition. Our results also suggest that gold has a lead relationship with exchange rate; however, this relationship switches over specific time intervals. This finding is of major concern for policy makers in determining the extent of stabilization in gold prices to bring consistency to exchange rate. Finally, the Granger coherence coefficients confirm that the strength of the causal relationship varies across over all frequencies. These conclusions have important implications for policy makers, economic analysts, portfolio managers and institutional investors.     

Commodities and monetary policy: Implications for inflation and price level targeting

We examine the relative ability of inflation targeting and price level targeting monetary policy rules to minimize inflation variability and business cycle fluctuations in a commodity-exporting country for supply and demand shocks to global commodity markets. The macroeconomic consequences of oil and non-oil primary commodities differ and affect the relative merits of the alternative monetary policy frameworks. Particularly, the consumption of refined oil products and demand-driven commodity price movements induce highly persistent inflation pressures resulting in a significant deterioration of the inflation-output gap trade-off available to central banks. When such terms-of-trade shocks are prevalent, price level targeting is inferior to inflation targeting.     

The real uncovered interest parity: The case of Canada and the USA

The aim of this paper is to re-assess the real uncovered interest parity (RUIP) in the light of including domestic demand shocks as possible determinants of the real exchange rate. We use annual data for two close trading partners, namely Canada and the USA. Using cointegration analysis we find evidence in favour of RUIP. In addition, empirical support is provided to show that discretionary fiscal policy actions have a spillover effect to the real exchange rate via real interest rates.     

汇率制度退出与转型：文献综述

如何退出已有汇率制度安排，向更具弹性的汇率制度转型？这是当前新兴市场和发展中国家面临的一个重要问题。在维持已有制度的边际成本与边际收益一致时退出已有汇率制度是最优的。最佳退出时机的经验判断原则取决于该国的经济结构、经济发展阶段、经济冲击、政治与制度因素等。这些因素同时也决定了该国汇率制度退出和转型的策略选择。汇率制度转型所需的基本条件是：一个具有一定深度和一定流动性的外汇市场，一套连贯的中央银行外汇市场干预的政策措施，一个恰当的名义锚，监测和管理公共部门和私人部门外汇风险暴露的有效机制。     

Macro stress testing and resilience assessment of Indian banking

This study conducts policy-based macro stress testing of the Indian banking sector and also assesses its resilience towards compliance with BASEL norms with the aid of an empirical macro-financial model. It uses scenario analysis and quantitative techniques to capture the impact of macroeconomic stress on the stability of the Indian banks by evaluating financial soundness indicators (credit quality, quantity and quality of capital adequacy). The scenarios are generated through policy-based shocks vis-à-vis other external shocks. The results from the estimation of the model indicate a cointegrating relationship between credit quality and key macroeconomic variables including output growth rate, interest rate, money growth rate and exchange rate. The results of the scenario analysis reveal that the Indian banking sector remains largely sound in terms of total regulatory capital adequacy ratio as per current BASEL II and even BASEL III requirement. The results also show that expansionary monetary policy impacts credit quality and capital adequacy in a positive and significant manner via its effect on the economy’s growth rate.     

A computational general equilibrium approach to the shadow pricing of trade restrictions and the adjustment of the exchange rate, with an application to Argentina

A general equilibrium model of an open economy in which there are ad valorem texes on domestic production and export activities, and import activities are subject to both tariffs and quotas is constructed. A domestic monetary asset, foreign exchange, and a corresponding nominal exchange rate are introduced and a numerical example of the model is constructed. The example is solved via the Scarf fixed point algorithm, first with taut quotas and then after having relaxed quotas. Various price indices are then used to guide programs designed to stabilize the trade balance against the quota liberalization. An empirical example, using Argentine data, is carried out to find the quota equivalent of a particular tariff.