The needs for international monetary reserves,exchange rate flexibility,and joining a currency area

Summary The needs for reserves, exchange rate flexibility and monetary policy are derived, the need being the result of an optimization problem. The level of domestic production, its variance and that of the domestic price level have been chosen as criteria of the benefits and costs. The effectiveness and costs of balance of payments adjustment, which appear to be co-determinants of the needs, are expressed in the parameters of an economic model. This shows that the need for reserves displays a one-to-one relation to quantities of the demand for money and to the balance of payments disturbance. Only the latter is a meaningful criterion for joining a currency area. Helpful comments by Mr. G. J. Lanjouw and a referee are acknowledged. This article is a revised and extended version of Jager (1977).     

The impact of the exchange rate system on the effectiveness and implementation of stabilization policy in The Netherlands

Summary An economic model is presented with as the most important features a parameter indicating the exchange rate flexibility, the splitting of the internal objective into domestic output and the average price level, the distinction between the price of domestic production and the average price level, and the price indexation of nominal wages. The stability conditions of this model are developed. Based on a qualitative analysis the directions of the impact of policy instruments on objectives are determined and used for obtaining rules and conditions for stable (de)centralized policies under fixed and managed floating exchange rates. These are confronted with empirical results about Dutch adjustment policy. Helpful comments from Mr.. W. J. Ferkranus and Prof. S. K. Kuipers are acknowledged.     

IMF Support and Inter-Regime Exchange Rate Volatility

It is widely agreed that when moving from fixed to floating exchange rates the increase in exchange rate volatility is not matched by an equivalent rise in the volatility of fundamentals. We argue and demonstrate that in inter-regime comparisons one has to account for ‘missing variables’ that compensate for the fundamental variables’ volatility under fixed exchange rates. Previous studies have often used foreign exchange reserves, but without much success. We argue why reserves are not a reliable measure, while IMF credit support is. Our empirical analysis identifies IMF support as a crucial and significant compensating variable.     

Fear of Floating Needn't Imply Fixed Rates: An OCA Approach to the Operation of Stable Intermediate Currency Regimes

The criteria of the theory of optimum currency areas suggest that many countries are not good candidates for either of the poles of genuinely fixed exchange rates or freely floating exchange rates. Thus, many countries should have an interest in intermediate exchange rate regimes. However, in a world of substantial capital mobility most forms of intermediate exchange rate regimes have proven to be highly crisis prone. This essay argues that the unholy trinity paradigm doesn't imply that intermediate exchange rate regimes are inherently unstable, but rather that exchange rate and monetary policies need to be jointly determined. The difficulties of maintaining such consistency are as much political as economic since temporarily pegged or managed rates create a time inconsistency problem. It is argued that OCA theory provides the framework for determining the appropriate weights and limits on the amount of sterilized intervention to maintain the consistency between exchange rate and monetary policies necessary to avoid currency crises. The paper also considers a number of the issues involved in integrating this approach with the literature on open economy aspects of inflation targeting.     

The optimal exchange rate regime for a small country

This paper examines the welfare comparisons between a freely floating, a managed floating, and a pegged exchange rate regime. We compare the expected loss under these regimes by modifying and generalizing Hamada’s (2002) model to accommodate intervention policy. We consider the de jure and de facto classifications, where the former is defined by the officially stated intentions of the monetary authorities, while the latter is based on the actually observed behavior of the nominal exchange rate. We first examine the exchange rate regimes from the central bank’s policy stance and the actual exchange rate policy. Next we assume that the regime which the private sector perceives according to an official announcement may be different from the one adopted actually by the central bank. We examine nine combinations of the de jure and de facto regimes. We interpret that, whenever they are different, there is informational friction between the central bank and the private sector. We show that the welfare level of a small country under freely floating is no less than that under other regimes, and that with some restrictive conditions, the de facto pegged or de facto managed floating is close to freely floating. This partly explains “Fear of floating” and “Fear of pegging”.     

Risk and Asian Exchange Rate Regimes

Abstract

A panel regression gives evidence that more flexibility in Asian exchange rates reduces risk associated with bank borrowing abroad, but deviations from mean exchange rates, and from the renminbi, increase risk. Since the exchange rate regime affects bank behavior and the incentives to hedge, the results broadly support the bank run over the moral hazard view of twin banking and currency crisis. The results suggest that flexibility in exchange rates is required for Asian EMEs, but the flexibility has to be limited, and it depends on more flexibility in the renminbi. This has implications for current global imbalances in reserves and feasible adjustment paths.     

Central bank intervention and exchange rate dynamics: A rationale for the regime-switching process of exchange rates

By proposing a stochastic intervention model of exchange rate determination, this paper provides an alternative rationale for the success of the Markov-switching model in explaining exchange rate dynamics. One extreme case is a pure floating rate model while the other extreme one is a driftless random walk model. The relation between the exchange rate and the future fundamentals under a non-intervention state is looser than the one under a pure floating exchange regime. This article also provides a method for detecting a central bank's interventions when intervention data are not available. Applying the stochastic intervention model to the monthly NT$/US$ exchange rates in 1989M1–2004M6, we find that it outperforms both the pure floating rate model and the random walk model in terms of the likelihood value and the diagnostic test of heteroscedasticity. In addition, with the constructed intervention state index in this article, the estimation of the stochastic intervention model is found to be consistent with the hypothesis that the regime switches of exchange rates are due to a central bank's (non-)interventions. J. Japanese Int. Economies 21 (1) (2007) 64–77.     

基于资本账户自由兑换进程中的汇率制度选择

货币可兑换与汇率机制具有紧密的内在联系。人民币汇率机制安排是人民币自由兑换进程中一个关键性问题。更加开放的资本项目需要更加灵活的汇率制度,以市场为基础的、有管理的浮动汇率制度是我国近中期最佳选择。随着资本项目的日益开放,汇率形成的市场化机制逐步提高,应逐步扩大人民币汇率波动幅度。汇率制度的灵活度与资本项目的开放度应保持同步性。     

Internationale monetaire problemen

Summary The paper is in the nature of an interim-report on progress with respect to reform of the international monetary system since three years ago. Only under the heading of haphazard creation of international reserves has some progress been made (S.D.R.'s). Also, there has been a realignment of currency values. However, the root of the difficulties remains the lack of international co-ordination of domestic policies with a view to external equilibrium. With recent exchange rate adjustments there is a danger that plans for reform and greater flexibility of rates will be shelved.      

Central banking with the benefit of hindsight

Summary From his experience as a central banker during more than 14 years, the author gives some thoughts to three problems, viz. the exchange rates system, international reserves and monetary policy in theory and practice. As to the exchange rate system the relative merits of fixed parities and fluctuating rates are discussed on the basis of the experiences after August 1971. In the section on international reserves, attention is paid to the role of gold with the advice to introduce a form of flexible management of the gold price by the main gold-holding central banks. In the last section the monetary elements of what is called monetarism are shown with a certain accent on techniques of monetary policy. Address by Dr. J. Zijlstra, President of the Netherlands Bank, for the Per Jacobsson Foundation in Washington on Sunday, September 27, 1981, reprinted here through the courtesy of the Board of the Per Jacobsson Foundation     

Managing the renminbi: should China peg to a trade‐weighted basket?

Pegging the renminbi (RMB) to the US dollar since 1994 has characterised China's exchange rate policy under a fixed peg or appreciating crawling peg. The current policy, announced in June 2010, of ‘floating with reference to a basket’ made the RMB 25 per cent stronger against a trade‐weighted basket by early August 2015, while it was 10 per cent stronger against the US dollar. Thus, 14 percentage points arose from changes in the cross rates of the other currencies, notably from the fall of the euro since December 2014. Devaluation of the RMB by 3 per cent in August 2015 just covered the effective appreciation since December 2014. Effects of the cross rates of other currencies could be eliminated by managing the external value of the RMB with reference to a genuine trade‐weighted basket. This could be a suitable intermediary exchange rate regime for China, as the risks associated with free floating are still great. Diversifying further the currency composition of the foreign exchange reserves and other foreign assets of the Chinese government, from US dollars towards euro and yen assets, would be a natural parallel shift. The euro–US dollar–yen exchange rates in late summer 2015 may offer a good opportunity to carry out this move.     

Fear of Floating: Korea's Exchange Rate Policy after the Crisis

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of whether a free floating exchange rate regime is a viable option for Korea. This paper divides the sample period into three subperiods: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. We then analyze the causal relationships among both levels and volatility of three financial variables: exchange rates, interest rates, and stock prices. By using Granger causality tests and variance decomposition, our empirical results show that causal relations among the three variables are weak during the post-crisis period, and furthermore, shocks in other financial markets do not have a significant contribution to explain the variations of each variable's forecast errors. Based on these empirical findings, we infer that the Korean government, having adopted the de jure freely floating exchange rate regime, is still fearful of floating for various reasons. J. Japan. Int. Econ., June 2001, 15(2), pp. 225–251. Department of Economics, Korea University, Seoul, Korea; Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, Seoul, Korea. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: F3, F4.     

Post-crisis monetary and exchange rate policies in Indonesia,Malaysia and Thailands

This paper surveys the post-crisis monetary and exchange rate policies of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Malaysia has pegged the ringgit while Indonesia and Thailand have adopted heavily managed exchange rates. Under their IMF programs, Thailand and Indonesia set base money targets, but Thailand has moved, and Indonesia is now moving, to inflation targeting, using interest rates as the short-term instrument. Malaysia also sets interest rates. The ability of the three central banks to set interest rates and also pursue an exchange rate target with an interest rate target has been bolstered by restrictions on the internationalisation of the domestic currency. The three central banks have also had to sterilise the monetary effects of their foreign exchange interventions. It is argued that inflation targeting is now a good policy choice, but that a more freely floating exchange rate would be better than sterilisation of balance of payments surpluses or deficits.     

A role model for China? Exchange rate flexibility and monetary policy in Japan

A substantial number of papers have proposed to allow for more exchange rate flexibility of the Chinese yuan. But few papers have tried to project how Chinese monetary policy will behave under flexible exchange rates. As Japan provides an important role model for China, this paper studies the role of the yen/dollar exchange rate for Japanese monetary policy after the shift of Japan from a fixed to a floating exchange rate regime. In contrast to prior studies, we allow for regime shifts in the impact of the exchange rate on monetary policy. The results show that the exchange rate had a substantial impact on Japanese monetary policy in periods of appreciation. This implies that repeated attempts to soften the appreciation pressure by interest rate cuts have led Japan into the liquidity trap. The economic policy conclusion for China is to keep the exchange rate pegged (to the dollar).     

China＇s Rapid Accumulation of Foreign Exchange Reserves and Its Policy Implications

In late February 2006, China surpassed Japan to become the world's largest holder of foreign exchange reserves. Beijing is now faced with the growing challenge of how to handle these vast reserves effectively. Although China's soaring foreign exchange reserves indicate that its overall strength has grown, they have created internal and external pressures on the balance of the economy, and introduced risks to the financial system. It is estimated in the present study that foreign exchange reserves of approximately US$ 400bn in 2005 would have been appropriate under circumstances of a managed floating exchange rate regime and capital control. China's actual reserves have far exceeded its normal demand. The objective of China is to maintain an optimal level that maximizes net benefits as a whole. Four main policy options are available for China to achieve its target: spending and investing foreign exchange reserves, gradual liberalization of the capital account, diversification of foreign exchange reserves and a switch in holders of foreign exchange reserves. Spending and investing in foreign exchange reserves can be undertaken in combination with liberalization in the capital account, given careful consideration of the risks involved. Liberalization should be extensive but gradual so that companies and individuals can adjust to changes in financial markets and manage portfolios while avoiding unnecessary risks. (Edited by Xiaoming Feng)     

Renminbi Exchange Rate: Peg to A Wide Band Currency Basket

Persistent renminbi (RMB) devaluation expectations are one of the greatest threats to China's macroeconomic stability. Market interventions backed by huge foreign exchange reserves and capital controls are not sufficient to eliminate the expectations of devaluation. Creating a market‐based and flexible RMB exchange rate regime holds the key to the elimination of devaluation expectations. The present paper compares the pros and cons of several policy options, and proposes to introduce, as a transition to free floating, a new exchange rate regime pegged to a currency basket with a wide band. The new regime should be able to give the RMB exchange rate enough flexibility to eliminate devaluation expectations as well as prevent excessive overshooting. To ensure a smooth transition, the new regime needs to be supported by controlling cross‐border capital flows.     

Optimal exchange-rate policy in an open economy

Summary Based on an empirical model constructed here and a quantified macroeconomic loss function, the analysis shows, by means of optimal control techniques, that a managed floating exchange rate would have been the optimal exchange arrangement for The Netherlands in the first half of the 1970s. Freely floating rates would have been the second-best solution. For both arrangements as well as for the adjustable peg the optimal time paths and various characteristics are deduced. Furthermore, quantification shows thatopenness does not exert the theoretically anticipated effect on a country's need for fixed exchange rates.     

A worldwide system of reference rates

This paper assumes that the major industrial countries (and probably most other major countries) will continue to employ inflation targeting and allow their exchange rates to float, in the sense of accepting no obligation to hold the rate at any particular level. However, it points out that floating may be interpreted in three different ways: as free floating, as permitting ad hoc intervention (with no rules, except possibly that there should be no “manipulation” of the exchange rate), and as managed floating, with the rules and parameters publicly announced. The latter can in turn be accomplished either by prescribing rules relating to changes or levels in the exchange rate. The paper argues in favor of a system of managed floating in which the rules prohibit intervention that would push the exchange rate away from an internationally agreed reference rate. It discusses the problems that would arise in calculating and agreeing a set of reference rates. While these would undoubtedly be serious, the prize is a system that would allow—but not compel—countries to attempt to limit the misalignments of their currency, and that would give the IMF a basis for effective surveillance.     

The Behavior of the Real Exchange Rate Under Fixed and Floating Exchange Rate Regimes

This article investigates the behavior of real exchange rates under fixed and flexible exchange rates. Using data from both the Bretton Woods and the modern floating periods, we decompose real exchange rate movements into components attributable to supply shocks, real demand shocks, monetary shocks, capital flows shocks, and real oil price shocks. Empirical results show that real demand shocks are an important source of real exchange rate movements under both fixed and flexible rates, while monetary shocks are negligible. Supply and oil price shocks seem to be more important under Bretton Woods, while capital flows shocks seem to explain a relatively higher proportion of real exchange rate movements under the modern floating period.     

A Comparative Analysis of Export Price Pass-through in Three Open Asian Economies: Korea,Singapore and Thailand

Abstract

The degree of exchange rate pass-through is of paramount importance to small and open economies as it has a direct impact on domestic inflation as well as the effectiveness of exchange rate as an adjustment tool. High exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) is often cited as a reason for a “fear of floating”. This article analyzes the degree of ERPT into the export prices of three Asian economies—Korea, Thailand and Singapore for the period 1980: Q1–2006: Q4 using both US dollar bilateral rates as well as nominal effective exchange rates. The study also examines whether there are asymmetries in ERPT between exchange rate appreciation and depreciation.