Monetary Policy Transmission In Emerging Markets And Developing Economies

Central banks in emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) have been modernizing their monetary policy frameworks, often moving toward inflation targeting (IT). However, questions regarding the strength of monetary policy transmission from interest rates to inflation and output have often stalled progress. We conduct a novel empirical analysis using Jordà’s (2005) approach for 40 EMDEs to shed a light on monetary transmission in these countries. We find that interest rate hikes reduce output growth and inflation, once we explicitly account for the behavior of the exchange rate. Having a modern monetary policy framework—adopting IT and independent and transparent central banks—matters more for monetary transmission than financial development.

Some emerging economies have a relatively ineffective monetary policy transmission owing to weaknesses in the domestic financial system and the presence of a large and segmented informal sector. At the same time, small open economies can have a substantial monetary policy transmission through the exchange rate channel. In order to understand this setting, we explore a unified treatment of monetary policy transmission and exchangerate pass-through. The results for an emerging market, India, suggest that the most effective mechanism through which monetary policy impacts inflation runs through the exchange rate.

Financial globalisation has made the formulation of monetary policy in emerging market economies increasingly complicated. This timely set of studies looks at the turmoil in global financial markets, which, coupled with volatile inflation, poses serious challenges for central banks in these countries. The book features a number of specially commissioned new papers from both front-line policymakers and researchers in developing and emerging market economies, which tackle the difficult issues currently being debated with increasing urgency by monetary policy theorists and policymakers around the world. They address questions such as: What monetary policy framework is most suitable for emerging market countries to confront the new challenges while they continue to open up to trade and financial flows? , What are the linkages between monetary stability and financial stability? and Is inflation targeting or a fixed exchange rate regime preferable for developing and emerging markets? Providing unique insights on the interaction between the theory and practice of monetary policy in emerging markets, this book will be of great interest to academics and students of economics, economic policy and development economics. Policymakers will also find this to be a useful and thought-provoking read.

We use two alternative representations of the yield curve to test the functioning of the interest rate transmission mechanism along the yield curve based on government paper in a sample of emerging market and low-income countries. We find a robust link from shortterm policy and interbank rates to longer-term bond yields. Two policy implications emerge. First, the presence of well-developed secondary financial markets does not seem to affect transmission of short term rates along the yield curve. Second, the strength of the transmission mechanism seems to be affected by the choice of the monetary regime: countries with a credible inflation targeting regime seem to have “better behaved” yield curves than those with other monetary regimes.

In contrast to advanced markets (AMs), procyclical monetary policy has been a problem for emerging markets (EMs), with macroeconomic policies amplifying economic upswings and deepening downturns. The stark difference in policy has not been subject to extensive study and this paper attempts to address the gap. Key findings, using a large sample of EMs over the past 50 years, are: (i) EMs have adopted increasingly countercyclical monetary policy over time, although large differences remain among EMs and policies became more procyclical during the recent crisis. (ii) Inflation targeting and better institutions have been key factors behind the move to countercyclicality. (iii) Only deep financial markets allow EMs with flexible exchange rate regimes turn countercyclical. (iv) More countercyclical policy is associated with far less volatile output. The economically meaningful impact of IT on monetary policy countercyclicality and output variability is another reason in its favor, over and above better inflation outcomes.

The COVID-19 crisis induced an unprecedented launch of unconventional monetary policy through asset purchase programs (APPs) by emerging market and developing economies. This paper presents a new dataset of APP announcements and implementation from March until August 2020 for 27 emerging markets and 8 small advanced economies. APPs’ effects on bond yields, exchange rates, equities, and debt spreads are estimated using different methodologies. The results confirm that APPs were successful in significantly reducing bond yields in EMDEs, and these effects were stronger than those of policy rate cuts, suggesting that such UMP could be important tools for EMDEs during financial market stress.

Over the past twenty years there has been a marked shift toward more flexible exchange rate regimes and more open capital accounts by both industrial and non-industrial economies. Two decades ago exchange rate pegs of various kinds accounted for over half of industrial country monetary policy regimes, but declined to just 5 percent of regimes by 2005, while in non-industrial countries the share fell from 75 percent to 55 percent. The move toward more flexibility in exchange rates has been accompanied by the adoption of a variety of frameworks to conduct monetary policy, ranging from inflation targeting, monetary targeting, and more eclectic approaches based on several targets. In industrial countries, exchange rate pegs and monetary targets have been replaced by regimes based on implicit or explicit inflation targets. In non-industrial countries, exchange rate pegs have also often been replaced by direct inflation targets, although many non-industrial countries still operate through somewhat eclectic regimes. This book is important read for understanding monetary policy under high capital mobility based on other countries' experiences.

Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate. These papers are generally brief and written in nontechnical language, and so are aimed at a broad audience interested in economic policy issues. This Web-only series replaced Staff Position Notes in January 2011.