The competitive real exchange-rate regime, inflation and monetary policy

Abstract

This article argues that in a stable and competitive real exchangerate(SCRER); macroeconomic regime, the exchange-rate component candrive up inflation through the very mechanisms that stimulate high rates ofgross domestic product and employment growth; to offset this pressure,fiscal and monetary policies will have to be used to control aggregatedemand. It finds that in an exchange-rate regime of this type, monetarypolicy has a degree of autonomy that can be exploited to apply activemonetary policies. It analyses the degree to which monetary policy canbe used to control aggregate demand and concludes that it cannot bearthe main responsibility for this, which means that fiscal policy ought to bethe main instrument for controlling aggregate demand.