The Determinants of Time‐Varying Exchange Rate Pass‐Through in South Africa

The pass‐through of shifts in the rand exchange rate to consumer price inflation has been well documented for South Africa. Although estimates of the absolute level of pass‐through vary, some studies document a decline in pass‐through over time. In order to better illuminate the policy implications of pass‐through, this paper seeks to add to the literature by decomposing pass‐through into a number of time‐varying impulses. This has the advantage of providing deeper insights of pass‐through over time and across various monetary policy regimes. We then analyse the determinants of time‐varying pass‐through. Our results confirm that pass‐through has declined over time but is subject to a stable and low inflation environment. We also show that a volatile exchange rate leads to higher pass‐through.     

Inflation Uncertainty and Monetary Policy in China

This paper uses a stochastic volatility model structural break tests with unknown point, and a counterfactual simulation method to discuss the significant decline in inflation uncertainty in China over 1978-2009. We attempt to quantify the contributions of better monetary policy and smaller structural shocks （including demand, supply and policy impacts） on the reduced inflation uncertainty. Empirical results in the present paper suggest that improved monetary policy accounts for only a small fraction of the reduction in inflation uncertainty from the pre-1997 period to the post-1997 period in China. The bulk of the significant moderation in inflation uncertainty arises from smaller shocks. This finding indicates that the quiescence of inflation in China over the past decade could well be followed by a return to a more turbulent inflation era. Therefore, the use of preemptive monetary policy to anchor inflationary expectations and keep moderate inflation uncertainty is warranted.     

通胀目标制：功能机理、政策绩效与启示

通货膨胀目标制是20世纪90年代初西方发达国家兴起的一种货币政策框架。文章从理论阐释了通胀目标制的功能机理,运用48个国家的相关数据对通胀目标制的绩效进行了实证分析,实证结果表明:通货膨胀目标制有助于锚住通胀预期,降低通货膨胀,稳定产出,是一种比较成功的货币政策框架。这一结论对货币政策框架需要调整的我国具有一定的政策启示。     

Evidence on the Effects of Money Growth on Inflation with Regime Switching

Since the latter half of 2010, a new round of inflation has gradually been manifesting in China. The debate regarding whether excess money supply is responsible for this inflation has attracted scholars to investigate the effects of money growth on inflation. In this paper, we use correlation analysis to confirm the comovement between growth of monetary aggregates and inflation. We explore the asymmetric effects of monetary policy on inflation using the Markov regime‐switching model. The empirical results show that monetary policy can be more effective in curbing inflation in a high inflation state than in boosting the price level in a low inflation state. However, simply tightening the money supply might not be sufficient to suppress the price level. To this end, the Chinese Government should adopt other policies, such as supply stabilization policies, to help suppress the price level. Our study can help policy‐makers to determine the actual economic state and provides some policy implications for the current inflation.     

What Causes China＇s High Inflation？ A Threshold Structural Vector Autoregression Analysis

China＇s astonishing economic growth implies a necessity to understand its inflation. The present paper employs threshold nonrecursive structural vector autoregression analysis to explore the asymmetric effects of macro-variables on inflation in low and high inflation regimes. The empirical evidence demonstrates, first, that the reactions of inflation to various shocks are inflation-regime-dependent and asymmetric. Second, monetary policy influences China ＂s high inflation and adjusting the domestic interest rate in China may be an effective way to control inflation in a high inflation regime, but not in a low inflation regime. In a high inflation regime, a high inflation rate may cause the macro-policy authorities to increase the domestic interest rate, in an attempt to stabilize high inflation. Third, contrary to expectations, the world oil price is not a strong cost-push factor in a low inflation regime. Oil price increases may increase inflation in a high inflation regime, but there is no such obvious effect in a low inflation regime. Finally, China ＂s nominal effective exchange rate influences inflation in both low and high inflation regimes. A nominal effeetive exchange rate appreciation might be effective in controlling domestic inflation in both regimes.     

地方政府赤字财政下的物价控制与货币政策选择

货币经济学的一个基本观点就是,紧缩的货币政策能够降低通货膨胀,而扩张性的货币政策能够导致通货膨胀。费德斯坦指出,没有充分考虑财政政策的影响,这是货币经济学的严重缺陷。因此,文章结合我国当前的财政政策,探讨了在地方政府赤字财政下,中央银行如何控制和治理通货膨胀。文章认为,在地方政府赤字财政下,如果政府通过银行融资具有优先权的话,紧缩的货币政策不仅不能够控制通货膨胀,反而加速了通货膨胀。     

LOUD AND CLEAR? CAN WE HEAR WHEN THE SARB SPEAKS?

Inflation targeting is a forward‐looking framework for monetary policy that has brought unprecedented transparency to the process of monetary policy. This paper aims to assess the degree to which the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has, since the introduction of inflation targeting, successfully communicated to the public its policy analysis, and, in particular, the expected future policy changes. It follows international literature in constructing a numerical index that is used to reflect the information content of the SARB's communications, specifically the monetary policy statements that accompanied each of the MPC meetings since 2000. This method allows us to judge, systematically, the degree to which the MPC has communicated successfully, and the evolution of that success over the past nine years. We find evidence that the MPC has succeeded in signalling their likely future policy decision with consistency over this period.     

Why is Inflation in China a Monetary Phenomenon？

This paper proposes that inflation in China during the post‐reform era (1978 onwards) is always a monetary phenomenon. We construct a multivariate dynamic model based on Friedman's quantity theory of money and use the standard Granger causality test to show that money growth contains significant predictive power for inflation during the underlying period. The finding is robust to alternative measures of monetary aggregates and both closed and open economy frameworks. The baseline finding of the paper indicates that quantitative tools remain the most important policy instruments for China to manage its inflation effectively.     

Monetary Convergence and Risk Premiums in the EU Accession Countries

This study examines the impact of various monetary policy regimes on the ability to lower inflation and exchange rate risk premiums in the EU accession countries as they undergo monetary convergence to the eurozone. It proposes a monetary policy framework of flexible targeting of relative inflation risk premium that is believed to be credible and useful for managing these two categories of risk. A model of inflation and exchange rate risk premiums within the context of inflation targeting is developed. Recent trends in these risk premiums in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland are tested by employing the threshold ARCH (TARCH) model.     

20世纪90年代美国货币政策及对我国目前的启示

1993～2000年的美国和目前的中国都出现了高增长、低通胀的局面,一般认为美联储的货币政策为之作出很大贡献。本文在借鉴的基础上就我国目前在高增长、低通胀下的货币政策的几个主要问题提出建议。     

Monetary Aggregates Targeting,Inflation Targeting and Inflation Stabilization in Ghana

The central bank of Ghana (BoG) has operated monetary aggregates targeting and inflation targeting since the 1980s, to ensure enhanced output growth, low unemployment and stable, low inflation. Under inflation targeting, the inflation rate averaged 13.26 per cent per annum between 2007 and 2015, compared with 29.22 per cent per annum under monetary aggregates targeting. The relatively lower inflation rates notwithstanding, an average inflation rate of 13.2 per cent per annum is far above the medium‐term target of 8 per cent. This paper has examined the effectiveness of monetary aggregates targeting and inflation targeting in keeping inflation at moderate levels. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was applied to the data covering the period 1970–2015. The results show that monetary targeting has steered inflation to moderate levels only in the short run while inflation targeting has maintained low inflation rates in both short run and long run. But neither regime has kept inflation at stable levels and within the target band, due to the sluggish transmission of broad money supply and prime rate changes to inflation. We implore the monetary authorities to strengthen the institutional setup for steering short‐term interest rates in Ghana. They should also enhance the BoG Act 2002 (Act 612), to develop secondary anchors and rules around output, money supply and fiscal deficit. Finally, the monetary policy committee should monetary policy credibility and transparency through strengthening its communication framework.     

Mix of Fiscal and Monetary Policy Rules and Inflation Dynamics in China

The present paper examines the role of the mix of fiscal and monetary policy rules in determining inflation dynamics using fiscal and monetary policy reaction functions and Markov‐switching vector autoregression methods based on quarterly data in the period 1992–2007. Our results show that fiscal and monetary policies in China can be adequately described using some simple rules, and that significant regime shifts took place around 1998. Fiscal policy tended to be active and countercyclical in the pre‐1998 period, then switched to be passive and more countercyclical, whereas monetary policy was characterized as passive and procyclical in the pre‐1998 period, and switched to be active and countercyclical afterwards. The mix of fiscal and monetary policy rules can explain inflation dynamics better than the monetary policy rule alone. Therefore, price stability requires not only appropriate monetary policy but also appropriate fiscal policy.     

Causes of Inflation in China： Inflation Expectations

This paper argues that the main causes of inflation in China since the early 21st century are changes in the public's inflation expectations. The conventional wisdom, the quantity theory of money, may not be adequate to capture the relationship between price changes and money supply growth, as the economic system evolves and people's income and wealth grow. An examination of China's GDP deflator and broad money supply relative to nominal GDP shows that the relationship between the two series is relatively weak. A further examination of China's monthly CPI series over the period 2001–2010 reveals that the autoregressive models are a better fit than the moving average models, which suggests that the role of CPI expectations has been significant and important. Because of the importance of inflation expectations in CPI movement, we believe the Central Bank's monetary policy that targets CPI inflation should emphasize the use of policy instruments that have direct and strong communication links with the public. Quantitative measures would have their own use, but their effectiveness would be unlikely to match that of interest rate measures, especially from a short‐term perspective.     

通胀率动态与通胀惯性度量

本文从通胀惯性的理论模型出发,构建无限状态Markov区制转移的计量模型,实现对通胀惯性的有效度量。对美国通胀惯性的实证分析,证实货币政策工具的频繁使用会付出通胀惯性的代价,暴露出其单一目标货币政策框架的缺陷。我国央行的调控也已经对市场利率形成了显著的传导作用,谨慎地使用货币政策工具,使我国的通胀惯性在被货币政策短暂影响后,得以有效恢复。这表明坚持实行多目标、多手段与宏观审慎政策相结合的调控模式,对维护经济环境稳定与长期发展的重要性。十国通胀惯性的度量结果与对比分析,进一步佐证了本文观点。     

Effect of Money Supply on Real Output and Price in China

Over the past 30 years, China has achieved remarkable long-term economic growth. Using quarterly data, we study the effects of money supply on real output and inflation in China between 1993 and 2008. To this end, we use money supply shocks afler filtering out the expected component of the money supply. Our findings provide evidence supporting the asymmetric effect of positive and negative money supply shocks on real output and inflation in China. That is, real GDP growth in China responds to negative money supply shocks but not positive money supply shocks. In addition, inflation responds to positive money supply shocks but not negative money supply shocks. We conclude that the People＇s Bank of China＇ s policy of steady monetary growth appears to be appropriate. Our study offers important policy implications for China.     

Inflation Targeting and the Pass‐through Rate in East Asian Economies

There has been serious debate regarding whether the inflation targeting (IT) framework for the emerging market economies has been an effective nominal anchor. Focusing on Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, this article aims to contribute to the debate by providing empirical evidence on a decline in the ‘pass‐through’ effect with IT adoption. Our main findings are as follows. First, under the IT framework, Korea has followed an inflation responsive rule in a forward‐looking manner, while Thailand has adopted the rule in a backward‐looking manner. Second, only Korea experiences a reduction in the pass‐through effect under IT adoption, thereby showing a linkage between the forward‐looking inflation responsive rule and the pass‐through effect. Finally, a test of the sensitivity of inflation expectations to external price shocks in Korea supports this linkage.     

Exchange Rate and Inflation Dynamics in a Resource Rich Setting: The Case of Zambia

This paper investigates the relationship between copper prices, the exchange rate and consumer price inflation in Zambia using a structural vector autoregression with quarterly data for 1995–2014 and a combination of sign and zero restrictions to identify relevant global and domestic shocks. The paper makes two contributions. First, it provides new measures of exchange rate pass through (ERPT), based on less restrictive assumptions than previous estimates, to show how changes in the value of the kwacha are reflected in changes in consumer prices (distinguishing food and non‐food inflation). Second, the ERPT is disaggregated to demonstrate that measured ERPT depends on the nature of the shock, with implications for policy responses. Although the price of copper is the most important driver of the exchange rate, the fluctuations it caused are associated with a low pass‐through of about 7% (consistent with a period of relatively low inflation). Exchange rate fluctuations caused by monetary shocks, in contrast, come with a pass‐through of up to 25% (and even more for food prices). A fast response by monetary authorities can mitigate the adverse effects of exchange rate shocks.     

货币政策的尴尬——浅析抑制通货膨胀中货币政策作用的弱化性及措施

中国发生的通货膨胀。虽然是在全球通胀的大环境下,但中国通胀有其独特的原因和历史背景。那么要抑制通胀,最简单的办法就是提高货币的价值,但是在目前的中国,这一问题就要复杂得多,我们多次运用紧缩的货币政策,并没有有效抑制通货膨胀,达到想象的预期效果,货币政策明显地表现出弱化性。所以目前"从紧"货币政策需要配合多种手段。解决的方案也不能局限在货币政策上。需要政府的宏观调控体制体现出更多的艺术和智慧。     

Inflation Transmission in Greater China

This paper examines inflation dynamics in Greater China. Using an asymmetric error correction model, we investigate how inflation in Hong Kong and Macao are related to inflation in Chinese Mainland. Our results based on data from July 1997 to December 2012 reveal that a long‐term equilibrium relation exists between inflation in Chinese Mainland and inflation in both Hong Kong and Macao, the two Special Administrative Regions of China. The degree of inflation pass‐through is higher for Macao than for Hong Kong. Moreover, we find no evidence of asymmetries in either Hong Kong and Macao's adjustment speeds towards long‐run equilibrium or in the short‐run pass‐through of accelerating or decelerating inflation in the Mainland. Collectively, our results show a close relationship among price dynamics of the three economies and call for a reconsideration of the exchange rate anchor in the Greater China Region.     

Will the Sarb always Succeed in Fighting Inflation with Contractionary Policy?

The conventional view is that a monetary policy shock has both supply‐side and demand‐side effects, at least in the short run. Barth and Ramey show that the supply‐side effect of a monetary policy shock may be greater than the demand‐side effect. We argue that it is crucial for monetary authorities to understand whether an increase in expected future inflation is due to supply shocks or demand shocks before applying contractionary policy to forestall inflation. We estimate a standard New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with the cost channel of monetary policy for the South African economy to show that whether the South African Reserve Bank should apply contractionary policy to fight inflation depends critically on the nature of the disturbance. If an increase in expected future inflation is mainly due to supply shocks, the South African Reserve Bank should not apply contractionary policy to fight inflation, as this would lead to a persistent increase in inflation and a greater loss in output. Our estimation results also show that with a moderate level of cost‐channel effect and nominal rigidities, a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with the cost channel of monetary policy is able to mimic the price puzzle produced by an estimated vector autoregressive model.