Interest rate setting in Egypt: a NARDL approach for estimating backward-looking monetary policy reaction function

Abstract

ABSTRACT The role of inflation versus output and exchange rate in designing monetary policy in Egypt has been subject to considerable debate in literature, even after the proclamation of price stability as the monetary policy objective in 2004 and the adoption of flexible exchange rate system in 2016. This study aims to investigate the main drivers of interest rate setting in Egypt throughout the period from 2005 to 2019. In this context, both an ARDL and NARDL econometric techniques are employed to estimate the backward-looking augmented Taylor monetary policy reaction function. The estimated equation estimates policy rate as a function in lagged inflation, lagged output gap, lagged policy rate, change in real effective exchange rate, in addition to other variables. The importance of this study arises from the lack of recent studies assessing interest rate setting in Egypt. The study concludes that monetary policy in Egypt has been accommodative to inflation and that Central Bank of Egypt responds asymmetrically to shocks in inflation, output and exchange rate.