Targeting Central Banks Research Articles

Monetary Policy Press Releases of 24 Inflation Targeting Central Banks – A Comparison of their Key Features and Complexity

Abstract This paper describes the process of constructing a dataset of available online press releases related to monetary policy decisions published by central banks that have been pursuing a form of inflation targeting. A total of 3,807 documents were considered, as the review encompasses 24 central banks over the past 30 years. To prepare the dataset for text-mining analysis, a cleaning procedure has been performed, which is also presented in detail. The next step was to look at the readability of the documents in order to detect any patterns in its changes. We find that while there is a significant variation between central banks, there is no clear time trend in the readability of the monetary policy press releases, i.e. some central banks tend to have easier-to-read press releases than others, and this does not change with time. In turn, there is a weak indication that following the Global Financial Crisis outbreak and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis apogee, as well as at the time of withdrawing unconventional measures introduced in response to those two emergencies, press releases of advanced economy inflation targeters got temporarily harder-to-read. Overall, this paper can be viewed as a first attempt towards assessing qualitatively central banks’ transparency, with respect to a flagship communication tool of inflation targeters, namely their monetary policy press releases.

Central bank capital management

This paper offers general guidelines for central bank capital management. Capital adequacy is important to be a credible, independent monetary authority over a medium-term horizon. Central banks, however, face several challenges in determining their capital adequacy. Firstly, the amount of capital only plays an auxiliary role in central banks' effectiveness given that they cannot default as long as they have the right to issue legal tender. Secondly, central banks face two types of financial risks: calculable risks from current exposures and latent risks from future exposures. These latent risks, in particular, are difficult to quantify because they stem from contingent policy measures such as quantitative easing and lending of last resort. It is argued that a central bank's target level of capital (1) can be calibrated with a confidence level that is lower than that used for commercial banks and (2) takes latent risks into account that are related to GDP or the size of the financial sector in the economy.

The Change in Inflation Expectation During and Post the Pandemic in European Region

What people anticipate inflation to be in the future is known as inflation expectations. These future inflation expectations are significant because they have an impact on people's actions now, which in turn has an impact on inflation in the future. It is crucial to get the inflation expectation as close to the central bank's target as possible because doing so makes it easier for the bank to achieve its goal of inflation. This study tries to explore the inflation expectations in the European region and how they change during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The paper also offers a future prediction regarding the inflation expectation. In order to forecast the level of expected future inflation, the study conducts a comparative analysis including the GDP, unemployment rate, and consumer price index. In the end, it was discovered that future inflation expectations are typically less firmly anchored and higher than the central bank's target. The study's conclusion also suggests a possible way to make the expectation more certain.

Kenya

Kenya is navigating a turbulent global backdrop marked by volatile commodity prices, slowing growth in key trading partners, and constrained frontier market access to international capital markets. At home, a smooth transition following the August elections demonstrated Kenya’s increasing institutional strengths, while the multi-season drought has worsened food insecurity for vulnerable populations in arid and semi-arid regions and kept food prices elevated. Strong tax overperformance in FY2021/22 helped cushion some of these shocks, and the administration of President Ruto eliminated petrol subsidies in their first week in office. Inflation has breached the central bank (CBK) target band, and monetary policy has been tightened by 175 basis points this year. Foreign reserves are adequate, but lower than previously projected given shortfalls in FY2021/22 external public commercial and project financing, spending cuts in FY2022/23 also extending to externally-financed projects, and the prospects for continued challenging market conditions for frontier economies into 2023.

VIRTUAL ASSETS AND MONETARY POLICY

The emergence and spread of virtual assets worldwide are at the center of many researchers’ attention. Virtual assets began to be used for settlement, capital accumulation, and speculative income, which creates competition with state fiat money, to the state monopoly of the central bank on money issuance and potentially rise a threat to financial stability.The purpose of the article is to assess the current state and development potential of both state and non-state virtual assets, their role in money circulation, and the potential impact on the monetary and credit system of Ukraine in the context of the possible launch of the central bank digital currency - the e-hryvnia.The article presents the main forms of virtual assets and defines their characteristics, evaluates the possibility of their usage for settlements, and the potential for partial or complete replacement of fiat money in cash or non-cash forms.It is proven that nowadays the main restraining factor for the acquisition of money functions by virtual assets are the insufficient prevalence of technological means for carrying out transactions, the high volatility of their prices, and legislative limits. It is determined that technically some retail virtual assets can acquire all money qualities and conceptually differ only in the issuer and the system of centralization: public or private issuer, centralized or decentralized system.Furthermore, it has been proven that the introduction of the e-hryvnia into circulation as a monetary policy tool with interest accrual would significantly strengthen the interest channel of monetary transmission, contribute to the achievement of central bank targets, and hence to non-inflationary monetization of the economic growth. At the same time, the introduction of the third form of money would probably give rise to new risks, which are proposed to be mitigated by proper parameterization of the new form of money.

Do Monetary Policy Frameworks Matter in Low-Income Countries?

In recent years, most low-income countries (LICs) have been remarkably successful in reducing inflation to single-digit levels, and many LICS are engaged in reforms to make their monetary policy frameworks more systematic, transparent, and forward-looking, often with technical support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). To inform those initiatives, our paper provides new empirical evidence about how the characteristics of the monetary policy framework affects the propagation of shocks in LICS. First, we analyze a cross-country panel dataset of 79 LICs over the period 1990 to 2015 to assess the impact of external shocks on real GDP growth, and we find highly significant differences between LICs where the central bank targets monetary aggregates or inflation compared to LICs that use the nominal exchange rates as the main nominal anchor. Second, we use difference-in-difference methods to assess the evolution of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the period from 1986 to 1994, and we find highly significant differences between 9 countries in the Central African Franc (CFA) zone compared to a control group of 12 other SSA countries. Our findings show that central banks in LICs can face policy tradeoffs similar to those which have been highlighted for more advanced economies, and our analysis underscores the key role of the monetary policy framework in fostering price stability and sustained economic growth in LICs.

The Unavoidability of Low Inflation–Low Output Traps

Abstract Since the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system, the monies of the developed world have been unbacked by any formal promise of convertibility. Yet, inflation has typically undershot, not overshot, central bank targets over the past couple decades. The low, while generally positive, inflation rate has (more arguably) been associated with low output and low growth. In this article, I consider these observations through the lens of a class of representative agent rational expectations models with nominal (price-setting) frictions and the possibility of firm entry/exit. I show that for any level of nominal frictions (no matter how small) and for any monetary policy rule that satisfies a set of weak restrictions, there is a large set of equilibria that exhibit permanently low inflation, low output, and low nominal interest rates. These equilibria can only exhibit positive long-run inflation if growth is low and the specification of nominal frictions (i.e. the Phillips curve) takes an unconventional but nonetheless empirically plausible form.

Alternative monetary policy regimes in an oil-exporting economy

We assess alternative monetary policy regimes including a consumer price index (CPI) and a producer price index (PPI) targeting in a commodity-exporting economy with multiple currency practices (MCPs). Under these regimes, the central bank in our model (i) target the official exchange rate, (ii) target the growth rate of nominal monetary base, and (iii) intervene in the foreign exchange market to control the exchange rate gap. We find that using the PPI as the central bank's target produces less pro-cyclicality compared to monetary regimes with the CPI targeting. In addition, the PPI targeting results in lower welfare losses. We study these regimes under unified and MCPs as a characteristic of some commodity-exporters. We show that with a persistent external shock, MCPs could be effective at best in the short-run, while the aggregate welfare in the long-run can be diminished. We then illustrate that under both unified and MCPs regimes, the PPI targeting regime considerably performs better. Finally, we show that monetary instruments are more effective in the presence of a fiscal rule, based on commodity revenues.

Covid-19 and monetary–fiscal policy interactions in Canada

We investigate fiscal–monetary policy interactions in Canada over a period that includes the global financial and Covid-19 crises. We relax the assumption that policy regimes are fixed, and estimate interest rate rules for monetary policy and tax rules for fiscal policy that switch stochastically between two regimes. We also use of a structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model to analyze the effects of fiscal policies, similar to the ones undertaken by the Canadian government (and other governments around the world) during the coronavirus pandemic. We find that fiscal policy has been more active than monetary policy and that deficit spending helps to boost economic activity in the short-run. However, the positive effects on real GDP and real private consumption die out with the end of the fiscal stimulus. Long-term interest rates rise, investment falls, and inflation rises, creating problems for an inflation targeting central bank.

Do Monetary Policy Frameworks Matter in Low Income Countries?

Microeconomic evidence indicates a very high frequency of price adjustment in low income countries (LICs), raising the question of whether LICs may be reasonably characterized as exhibiting monetary neutrality. To address this question, we analyze a cross-country panel dataset of 79 LICs over the period 1990 to 2015 to assess the impact of external shocks on real GDP growth, and we find highly significant differences between LICs where the central bank targets monetary aggregates or inflation compared to LICs that maintain rigid nominal exchange rates. We also conduct an event study of the surprise devaluation of the Central African Franc (CFA) in January 1994 and find that it had highly significant effects on the output growth of 10 CFA countries relative to 18 similar countries outside the CFA zone. Consequently, the hypothesis of monetary neutrality is decisively rejected, and these findings provide strong support for the role of monetary policy frameworks in fostering price stability and macroeconomic stability in LICs.

Deflation Forces and Inequality

Proximity to short yield zero lower bounds has challenged the inflation targeting central banks of the advanced regions. Central to this development are three-decade declining trends in long yields and underlying real, equilibrium interest rates that have flattened yield curves, restricting “normalisation” and adding deflationary pressure by boosting demand for portfolio money. Inflationary forces, such as fiscal deficits, industrial protection and resurgent regional growth, have proved comparatively weak. In this paper global modelling is used to show that key deflationary forces in these regions include automation, the race to the bottom in capital taxation and immigration. Each is shown to redistribute income so as to expand the welfare gap between the low-skilled and capital owners by 2.5 to 3.5 per cent per year. The high saving rates of capital owners depress real equilibrium rates and their expanding portfolios demand monetary expansion. These forces ensure that the challenges of macro stabilisation and distributional policy making are both intertwined and urgent.

Unconventional monetary policy in a nonlinear quadratic model

Abstract After the financial market meltdown and the Great Recession of the years 2007–9, the financial market-macro link has become an important issue in monetary policy modeling. We develop a dynamic model that contains a nonlinear Phillips curve, a dynamic output equation, and a nonlinear credit flow equation – capturing the importance of credit cycles, risk premia, and credit spreads. Our Nonlinear Quadratic Model (NLQ) model has three dynamic state equations and a quadratic objective function. It can be used to evaluate the response of central banks to the Great Recession in moving from conventional to unconventional monetary policy. We solve the model with a new numerical procedure using estimated parameters for the euro area. We conduct simulations to explore the (de)stabilizing effects of the nonlinearities in the model. We demonstrate that credit flows, risk premia, and credit spreads play an important role as an amplification mechanism and in affecting the transmission of monetary policy. We thereby highlight the importance of the natural rate of interest as an anchor for a central bank target and the weight it places on the credit flows for the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy. Our model is similar in structure compared to larger scale macro-econometric models which many central banks employ.

A Theory of Growth and Threshold Inflation with Estimates

For an inflation targeting Central Bank, a precise estimate of the threshold inflation in the economy is important. Existing studies provide estimates without any coherent theory of growth and threshold inflation and hence suffer from several limitations about concept and measurement. The present paper attempts to develop such a theory to establish a stable steady state growth solution. It also operationalizes the theory through a model with support from the Indian data for specific components of the model to derive the required functional form. Final estimates in India with annual data from 1995–96 to 2017–18 show that the threshold inflation and associated optimal growth vary considerably as rates of fiscal deficit and current account deficit on the balance of payments vary. The current combinations of the long term four policy targets of 4% inflation; 8% growth; 6% fiscal deficit (to GDP); and 2% current account deficit (to GDP) are internally inconsistent and hence not achievable. Now that there is an opportunity to revise the inflation target for the period after March 2021, the present paper argues for choosing from the menu of internally consistent options for all these four policy targets to avoid unnecessary costs.

Reading the Stars

Following the global financial crisis, significant uncertainty has existed around the U.S. economy’s steady state equilibrium. This paper uses a factor model to provide a new approach to estimating “the stars” (i.e. the neutral interest rate, maximum employment, and the level and growth rate of potential output) that are most consistent with a medium-term equilibrium where inflation converges to the FOMC’s two percent target. It is applicable to any country with an inflation targeting central bank. It also explicitly incorporates estimates of the extensive margin of slack in the labor market, which has proven to be an important factor in describing the post-financial crisis landscape.

The influence of learning and price-level targeting on central bank forward guidance

This paper examines how the effectiveness of central bank forward guidance depends on two key channels: the expectations formation process and the monetary policy regime. The results show that rational expectations relative to an adaptive learning rule amplifies the positive benefits a price-level targeting central bank creates for forward guidance. Specifically, forward guidance generates greater amounts of output and inflation under a price-level than inflation targeting monetary policy regime, but rational expectations overstates these positive benefits compared to adaptive learning. The different responses of expectations between rational expectations and adaptive learning to forward guidance are driving this performance gap. Thus, policymakers should consider how expectations are modeled if forward guidance and price-level targeting are implemented in an economy.

Endogenously heterogeneous inflation expectations and monetary policy

This study adopts insights from Heterogeneous Agent Models (HAM) in order to formalize Post Keynesian insights and further develop heterodox macroeconomics. We formulate a macrodynamic model consisting of a standard Post Keynesian investment function and conflict inflation, resulting from workers and capitalists making conflicting claims over their shares in output. The central bank targets the inflation rate by employing the nominal rate of interest as an instrument. However, in a departure from standard Post Keynesian literature, expectations about inflation are endogenously heterogeneous. An endogenously determined fraction of the agents expects the inflation target of the central bank to prevail, while the rest of the agents are trend-followers. The proportion of trend followers depends directly on the proportionate deviation of the actual rate of inflation from the target rate. We examine the stability of the model and discuss some of its dynamic properties. We find that even along the steady-state neither class is able to achieve its desired share. Further, due to the endogenously heterogeneous nature of inflation expectations, any large shock to the system might destabilize it. We reexamine the effectiveness of a monetary policy that relies solely on inflation targeting in this context.

Do Monetary Policy Frameworks Matter in Low Income Countries?

In recent years, many Low-Income Countries (LICs) have implemented substantial reforms to their monetary policy frameworks, but existing economic research has not provided a clear rationale to guide those efforts. In this paper we analyze the role of monetary policy frameworks in the propagation of aggregate shocks, using a large panel dataset of 79 LICs over the period 1990-2015 as well as event study analysis for a group of 28 sub-Saharan African LICs. We find highly significant differences in the propagation of external shocks between the LICs that target monetary aggregates or inflation compared to those that maintain rigid nominal exchange rates as a nominal anchor. We also find that the large surprise devaluation of the Central African Franc (CFA) in January 1994 had highly significant effects on the GDP growth of 10 CFA countries compared to 18 similar countries that were outside the CFA zone. Our empirical analysis provides strong support for the role of monetary policy frameworks in facilitating macroeconomic stability in LICs-a conclusion that is particularly relevant as LICs now face a multitude of similar shocks associated with the global COVID-19 pandemic.

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THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CENTRAL BANK INTERVENTION: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET

This paper explores the effectiveness in which the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) artificially devalues the New Taiwan Dollar relative to the US Dollar via the major foreign exchange brokered firm in Taiwan. The empirical results support that Taiwan’s central bank targets to step into the major market to influence the exchange rate at some specific intervals. However, the effectiveness of intervention in the major brokered company is short run and might reverse overnight. Moreover, intervention increases the returns and spreads of the two markets for a few minutes. Finally, the effectiveness of moral suasion is insignificant, depending on the timing of interventions and the response of market participants to those interventions.

Central bank target rates and term structure of interest rates: A study of six Asia-Pacific countries

Granger causality tests find that the official interest rate (OIR) changes made by the central banks of Australia, China, India, South Korea, Philippines, and Taiwan cause OIR changes at other central banks, but no central bank dominates in its impact. Event study tests show that OIR announcements impact short-term market interest rates more than long-term market interest rates in their own countries. Our study shows that announcements by India and China have the largest impact on the other four countries. Markets anticipate OIR changes consistent with the objective of transparency by monetary authorities to reduce economy uncertainty for market participants.