Inflation targeting in Brazil: constructing credibility under exchange rate volatility

This paper assesses the challenges faced by the inflation-targeting regime in Brazil. The inflation-targeting framework has played a critical role in macroeconomic stabilization. We stress two important challenges: construction of credibility and exchange rate volatility. The estimations indicate the following results: (i) the inflation targets have worked as an important coordinator of expectations; (ii) the Central Bank has reacted strongly to inflation expectations; (iii) there has been a reduction in the degree of inflation persistence; and (iv) the exchange rate pass-through for “administered or monitored” prices is two times higher than for “market” prices.     

Fiscal Dominance and Inflation Targeting: Lessons from Turkey

In the aftermath of the 2000-2001 crisis in Turkey, the banking sector was in turbulence, requiring immediate action. The rescue operation significantly increased the public debt ratio with respect to gross domestic product. At the beginning of 2002, the central bank of Turkey announced that it was going to implement an implicit inflation-targeting regime. The fiscal dominance caused by the high debt ratio severely constrained the conduct of monetary policy. Other obstacles to the conduct of monetary policy included a high level of exchange rate pass-through, inflation inertia, and a weak banking sector. This paper offers an account of the monetary policy experience of Turkey in the postcrisis period and provides lessons for policymakers in other emerging markets.     

Exchange rate pass-through in emerging countries: Do the inflation environment,monetary policy regime and central bank behavior matter?

In this paper, we estimate the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to import and consumer prices for a sample of 14 emerging countries over the 1994Q1-2015Q3 period. To this end, we augment the traditional bivariate relationship between the nominal effective exchange rate and inflation by accounting for monetary stability proxied by the inflation environment, monetary policy regime and central bank behavior. We show that both the level and volatility of inflation, as well as adopting an inflation target or the transparency of monetary policy decisions clearly reduce ERPT to consumer prices. However, uncertainty about domestic monetary policy seems less relevant in explaining the pass-through to the price of imports.     

Asymmetric exchange rate pass-through in an emerging market economy: The case of Mexico

This paper applies a nonlinear Autoregressive Distribute Lag to examine the exchange rate pass-through into consumer price inflation in Mexico. Overall, the evidence confirmed that ignoring the asymmetric (sign) effect of exchange rate movements on inflation may lead to incorrect inferences and policy conclusions. Exchange rate fluctuation is transferred to prices level more during currency depreciation than appreciation. We compare the macroeconomic performances between pre- and post-inflation targeting, and our findings reaffirmed that the pass-through has weakened significantly after launching inflation targeting in 2001. This result implies that low inflation in the sample period examined is good for Mexico because exchange rate pass-through declines after 2001. Consumer prices have become less responsive to exchange rate movements. We further observe a revival (strengthening) of oil price pass-through to domestic inflation in the post- inflation targeting period.     

人民币汇率变动对我国通货膨胀的影响：汇率传递视角的研究

在开放经济条件下,汇率变动对一国通货膨胀水平的决定具有重要作用。本文利用自回归分布滞后(ARDL)模型研究了人民币汇率变动对以消费者价格指数(CPI)衡量的国内通货膨胀的传递效应。研究结果表明,人民币汇率变动对以CPI衡量的通货膨胀水平的传递是不完全的且存在明显的时滞,长期和短期汇率传递效应都很低;汇率变动对我国CPI的传递效应受食品价格冲击的影响非常大。本文的研究结论对于我国的汇率制度改革和货币政策实施等具有重要的启示意义。     

Price adjustment and exchange rate pass-through

This paper develops a simple theoretical model that can be used to account for the determinants of exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices. While recent evidence has found low estimates of pass-through in many countries, there is little consensus on an explanation for this. Our paper argues that sticky prices represent a key determinant of exchange rate pass-through. We make this argument in two stages. First, holding the frequency of price change constant, we show that our model calibrated to data from low-inflation countries can reproduce the estimates of very low pass-through for these countries. The principal determinant of low pass-through in this case is the slow adjustment of prices. We then extend the model to allow the frequency of price change to be endogenous. Calibrating to a wider set of countries, including both low-inflation and high-inflation countries, we show that our model implies that exchange rate pass-through is increasing in average inflation, but at a declining rate. Performing the identical exercise on the data, we find a striking correspondence between the predictions of the model and those of the data.     

汇率价格传递效应理论的发展

传统的汇率价格传递效应理论是建立在一价定律基础上的,认为汇率变动会对进出口价格产生完全的传递效应。但是,大量的实证研究表明,汇率变动引致的进出口价格相应的变动往往是不完全的。关于汇率变动对进出口价格的不完全传递效应,多数学者从微观经济学的视角展开研究,如不完全竞争、价格歧视、沉淀成本、厂商定价策略等;近年来也有一些学者试图从宏观经济学的视角进行解释,如一国通货膨胀环境、货币政策稳定性等。     

Inflationary Effects of Oil Prices in Turkey: A Regime-Switching Approach

This paper investigates the existence of oil pass-through to inflation for Turkey covering the period February 1996-May 2007. Oil price-augmented Phillips curves are estimated with linear and Markov regime-switching models. Markov regime-switching models reveal the asymmetric structure of oil pass-through and indicate the existence of two different regimes characterized as the high- and the low-inflation periods. We find evidence for asymmetric oil pass-through in the high-inflation regime for headline and food- and energy-excluded inflation measures. Our results suggest that Jarque-Bera core inflation is not affected by oil price variations under either inflationary environment. Hence, we suggest the Jarque-Bera indicator as an intermediate target in the analysis of the future trend of inflation.     

Exchange rate pass-through in EMU acceding countries: Empirical analysis and policy implications

Countries that joined the European Union in 2004 have to decide when to adopt the Euro. This decision depends on the evaluation of the relative costs and benefits associated with giving up the exchange rate instrument. Recent empirical work on several new EU members has questioned the role of the exchange rate as a shock absorber, thus downplaying the potential costs in terms of macroeconomic stabilization. In this paper, we address the issue from a different perspective, emphasizing the role of pass-through from exchange rate to domestic inflation in new EU members. The focus is on four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia – NM-4) that have adopted some form of floating or managed exchange rate regimes. The paper reports empirical results indicating high pass-through coefficients and links them to the degree of policy accommodation. High exchange rate pass-through in NM-4 indicates that stabilization of nominal exchange rates would lower inflationary pressures and help fulfill criteria to enter the EMU.     

Pursuing financial stability under an inflation-targeting regime

We evaluate two main views on pursuing financial stability within a flexible inflation-targeting regime. It appears that potential gains from an activist or precautionary approach to promoting financial stability are highly shock dependent. We find support for the conventional view that concern for financial stability generally warrants a longer target horizon for inflation. The preferred target horizon depends on the financial stability indicator and the shock. An extension of the target horizon favoring financial stability may contribute to relatively higher variation in inflation and output.      

Two targets,two instruments: Monetary and exchange rate policies in emerging market economies

This paper examines the case for using two instruments—the policy interest rate and sterilized foreign exchange market intervention—in emerging market countries seeking to stabilize inflation and output while attenuating disequilibrium currency movements. We estimate policy reaction functions for central banks, documenting that indeed both instruments tend to be deployed. We show that whether discretionary monetary policy or inflation targeting is preferable depends on the volatility of shocks relative to the central bank's time inconsistency problem. The use of FX intervention as a second instrument improves welfare under both regimes, but more so under inflation targeting. Overall, a regime of (two-way) sterilized intervention-cum-inflation targeting can result in better outcomes in the presence of imperfect capital mobility/asset substitutability—yielding similar gains to a discretionary policy while still delivering the inflation target.     

Inflation targeting & implications of oil shocks for inflation expectations in oil-importing and exporting economies: Evidence from three Nordic Kingdoms

In the context of the debate on inflation targeting, this paper analyses the impact of the oil shocks on inflation expectations in three Nordic Kingdoms. A NARDL framework is applied to data from Jan 1994 to June 2018 on the Kingdoms of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Our key findings suggest that there are considerable nonlinearities and asymmetries in the relationship between inflation expectations, oil shocks and economic determinants of inflation expectations. The expectations formulated in the past have a very significant negative impact on future inflation expectations (adaptive expectations) and there is heterogeneity in the adaptiveness pace. A country's net oil trade position seems to reflect on the impact of oil price shocks on the inflation expectations and there is asymmetry and downwards inflation expectations rigidity. There is strong evidence of exchange rate pass-through to inflation expectations. Prevailing regimes of price stability can support to anchor future inflation expectations. Reduction in fiscal deficit and increases in money supply has a positive impact while unemployment has a negative impact on inflation expectations. The cumulative multiplier analysis showed that the impact of oil shock was symmetric in Sweden and Denmark but asymmetric in Norway which is a large net oil exporter. Besides the adoption of explicit inflation targeting regime by Sweden and Norway, the inflation expectations in the underlying economies are prone to the oil price shocks and macroeconomic determinants. These shocks pose a whole set of challenges to monetary authorities in these economies and the findings in the subject treatise provide some guidance on how each shock may transmit.     

Incomplete Exchange Rate Pass-Through: Evidence from Exchange Rate Reform in China

Exchange rate disconnect is one of the central puzzles in international macroeconomics. Recently, there is a growing literature that studies the microeconomic foundations or mechanisms for incomplete exchange rate pass-through. However, the estimations of the exchange rate pass-through vary widely in the existing literature. Our article proposes the use of a policy-based instrumental variable for exchange rate, exploiting the exchange rate reform in China, and finds that 67% of exchange rate pass-through into the FOB export price of Chinese exports. This contrasts to the almost full exchange rate pass-through using OLS estimation. We further find that the export price of homogeneous goods, low-technology goods, and goods supplied by domestic non-SOEs is more sensitive to exchange rate changes.     

Pegged Exchange Rate Regimes—A Trap?

We analyze the role of an exchange rate peg as a commitment mechanism to achieve inflation stability when multiple equilibria are possible. We show that there are ex ante large gains from choosing a more conservative regime not only in order to mitigate inflation bias from time inconsistency but also to avoid high inflation equilibria. In these circumstances, using a pegged exchange rate as an anti-inflation commitment device can create a "trap" whereby the regime initially confers gains in anti-inflation credibility but ultimately results in an exit occasioned by a big enough adverse real shock that creates large welfare losses to the economy.     

Monetary policy transparency and pass-through of retail interest rates

This paper examines the degree of pass-through and adjustment speed of retail interest rates in response to changes in benchmark market rates in New Zealand during the period 1994–2004. We consider the effects of policy transparency and financial structure of the monetary transmission mechanism. New Zealand is the first OECD country to adopt a full-fledged inflation targeting regime with specific accountability and transparency provisions. Policy transparency was further enhanced by a shift from quantity (settlement cash) to price (interest rate) operating targets in 1999. Using Phillips–Loretan estimates of cointegrating regressions we find complete long-term pass-through for some but not all retail rates. Our results also show that the introduction of the Official Cash Rate (OCR) increased the pass-through of floating and deposit rates but not fixed mortgage rates. In line with previous studies we find the immediate pass-through of market interest rates to bank retail rates to be incomplete. Although we find no statistical evidence for asymmetric response of retail rates to changes in market rates other than for business lending rates in the pre OCR period, differences in the magnitude of mean adjustment lags indicate that banks appear to pass on decreases to fixed mortgage rates faster. Overall, our results confirm that monetary policy rate has more influence on short-term interest rates and that increased transparency has lowered instrument volatility and enhanced the efficacy of policy.     

Assessing financial instability: The case of Brazil

In this paper we use the arbitrage pricing theory to infer the probability of financial institution failure for banks in Brazil. We build an index of financial stability for Brazilian banks. Empirical results seem to provide evidence that after the Russian crisis in 1998, systemic risk has increased in the country but this risk has decreased over time through 2002. Furthermore, for individual major banks the probability of failure has decreased monotonically after the Russian crisis with the adoption of a floating exchange rate regime, an inflation-targeting framework and the introduction of the new payment system.     

Exploring international differences in inflation dynamics

Standard closed-economy DSGE models have difficulty replicating the persistence of inflation. We use a multicountry dataset to establish some empirical regularities on persistence and volatility of aggregate consumer prices for 135 countries since 1993. We find both persistence and volatility to be low (high) in developed (developing) countries relative to the full sample average. This pattern is also observed in low (high) inflation countries. We then employ a two-country DSGE framework to investigate the extent to which structural open economy features, such as incomplete exchange rate pass-through, the existence of nontraded goods, and international financial market incompleteness, can help in replicating the persistence and volatility of consumer prices. Our simulation results indicate that the model can replicate the degree of inflation persistence seen in the data for both developed and developing countries, but cannot generate the low levels of volatility observed in developed economies.     

Exchange rate pass-through into import prices revisited: What drives it?

A large sample of developed and emerging economies is utilized to investigate import exchange rate pass-through. Panel models reveal that various economic aspects of the destination country can explain about one third of the total variation in pass-through elasticities and the remaining variation comes largely in the form of unobserved country-specific effects. Inflation, exchange rate volatility, openness and relative wealth play a clear role as drivers of emerging markets’ pass-through whereas the output gap and protectionism appear influential more generally. Nonlinearity regarding large-versus-small changes in the exchange rate is quite pervasive. Our evidence challenges the widely-held view that pass-through has been universally falling in developed markets and that it is higher for emerging markets. The economic drivers are shown to play a role as out-of-sample predictors of pass-through. The findings confirm pricing-to-market theories and have implications for the optimal conduct of monetary policy.     

Exchange Rate Pass-Through in an Emerging Market: The Case of the Czech Republic

We examine exchange rate pass-through, or how domestic prices respond to exchange rate shocks, in the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2013 by employing vector autoregression models. Using the aggregate consumer price index and its subcomponents, we find that the peak response occurs between nine and thirteen months after the exchange rate shock. The average pass-through at the monetary policy horizon is approximately 20 percent at the aggregate level. Regarding the subcomponents, the degree of pass-through is greatest for food prices.     

Following the leader? The relevance of the Fed funds rate for inflation targeting countries

In a New-Keynesian model for a small open economy, we derive a CPI inflation-based Taylor rule that implements the flexible price allocation. We conclude that, in this rule, the natural rate of interest should be linked to the foreign interest rate and to domestic productivity shocks. This rule ensures that the CPI real rate moves in order to induce movements in consumption that are coherent with the flexible price allocation. The empirical evidence shows that inflation-targeting central banks respond to movements in the Fed funds rate, besides reacting to expected CPI inflation and to the domestic output gap. This is true for developed and emerging economies. Furthermore, we find that in emerging countries the response to foreign variables is not different from zero, as suggested by theory, when domestic inflation, rather than CPI inflation, is introduced in the policy rule.