Exchange Rate Passthrough Effects and Inflation Targeting in Emerging Economies: What is the Relationship?

Several studies have shown that over the past 10 years the passthrough effect from currency depreciation into domestic inflation has been decreasing in emerging economies that adopted inflation targeting (IT) during the mid and late 1990s. Therefore the nominal exchange rate effect on domestic inflation is becoming less of an issue for these countries. The literature has offered different explanations for these declines but so far they have not been directly related to the adoption of IT. This paper shows that lower passthrough effects can also be the result of the implementation of an IT regime and argues, contrary to previous studies, that the effects of the nominal exchange rate on inflation are still a relevant issue for emerging IT countries. The reason for this is that the empirical evidence offered for the lower passthrough misses the nature of the relationship between inflation and the nominal exchange rate under IT.