Recent Fall in the SDR Interest Rate--Implications and Proposed Amendments to Rule T-1

Policy Papers ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (75) ◽  
Author(s):  

The SDR interest rate is at historic lows. Under the current Rule T-1, the SDR interest rate is calculated as the weighted average of interest rate instruments in the SDR basket, and stood at just 3 basis points for the week of October 13th. Market rates could decline further, which could reduce the SDR interest rate to zero or negative levels under the formula of the current Rule T-1. However, there is no authority under the Articles of Agreement for the Fund to establish a zero or negative SDR interest rate. The wording of the relevant provisions in the Articles does not leave room for a zero or negative rate, and nothing in the legislative history of the First and Second Amendments suggests that zero or negative rates were ever contemplated. Negative SDR interest rates would also have adverse implications for the Fund’s finances. Moreover, very low SDR interest rates affect the functioning of the burden sharing mechanism for deferred charges. Under current Board decisions, the equal burden sharing, where creditors and debtors as a group generate equal amounts to cover deferred charges, requires a minimum positive SDR interest rate to operate. The SDR interest rate has now fallen below that minimum level. This paper proposes technical amendments to Rule T-1 and the burden sharing mechanism to address these issues. In particular, the paper proposes setting a 5 basis point floor on the SDR interest rate, changing the rounding rules on the SDR interest rate and the burden sharing adjustment, and reducing the 1 basis point minimum of the burden sharing adjustment to 0.1 basis point. These measures would preserve a minimal capacity of equal burden sharing aimed at protecting the Fund’s balance sheet, while limiting potential departures of the SDR interest rate from market interest rates.

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 2921-2954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hoffmann ◽  
Sam Langfield ◽  
Federico Pierobon ◽  
Guillaume Vuillemey

Abstract We study the allocation of interest rate risk within the European banking sector using novel data. Banks’ exposure to interest rate risk is small on aggregate, but heterogeneous in the cross-section. Contrary to conventional wisdom, net worth is increasing in interest rates for approximately half of the institutions in our sample. Cross-sectional variation in banks’ exposures is driven by cross-country differences in loan-rate fixation conventions for mortgages. Banks use derivatives to partially hedge on-balance-sheet exposures. Residual exposures imply that changes in interest rates have redistributive effects within the banking sector. Received October 31, 2017; editorial decision August 30, 2018 by Editor Philip Strahan. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo Benigno ◽  
Salvatore Nisticò

This paper studies monetary policy in models where multiple assets have different liquidity properties: safe and “pseudo-safe” assets coexist. A shock worsening the liquidity properties of the pseudo-safe assets raises interest rate spreads and can cause a deep recession-cum-deflation. Expanding the central bank’s balance sheet fills the shortage of safe assets and counteracts the recession. Lowering the interest rate on reserves insulates market interest rates from the liquidity shock and improves risk sharing between borrowers and savers. (JEL E31, E32, E43, E44, E52)


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-16
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Kovalev

This article deal with the discussion between F. Hayek and P. Sraffa in the 1930s. This piece of the history of economic thought is not presented in the Russian-speaking literature. The main method is a content analysis. The directions of criticism Hayek’s business cycle theory by Sraffa and the response towards is analyzed in the paper. The author compared the opponents’ approaches to the essence of the equilibrium, to the savings-investments equality, to the possibility to lose capital as a result of malinvestments, to the role of expectations, and to the natural rate of interest. A version was offered for explaining the ineffectiveness of Hayek's answer to the question on the multiplicity of natural interest rates and the reasons why the barter economy has been perceived as theoretical basis of the Hayekian analysis. It is the inaccurate wording of the natural interest rate and the representation the theory within the framework of the equilibrium paradigm. The findings of the research may be applied to analyze the impact of interest rate regulation on the economic.


2021 ◽  
pp. 220-244
Author(s):  
Rafael García Iborra

The classical Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) is based on an inverse relationship between the so-called Average Period of Production (APP) or ‘roundaboutness’ and the interest rate. According to Böhm-Bawerk (1884 [1891]), the APP is the weighted average time that a unit of labor is locked up in the production process1; moreover, there is a positive relationship between savings (the ‘subsistence fund’) and the APP: the higher the latter the higher the former, which implies an inverse relationship between interest rates and the APP. Thus, a lower interest rate will lead to a higher APP ceteris paribus. Hayek (2008) based his Hayekian triangles on Böhm-Bawerk’s work: a lower (higher) interest rate leads to a more (less) rounda- bout structure of production, increasing (decreasing) the APP. Including Mises’s (1921) business cycle theory into the analysis, whenever the interest rate is pushed lower than its ‘natural level’, either by the central bank or the banking system, there is an unsus- tainable extension of the APP that will generate an economic boom; the crisis will irremediably follow, as the APP will pull back towards its natural level. From this brief characterization of the ABCT, it is easy to notice the key role of the inverse relationship between interest rates and roundaboutness; without it, there is no connection from changes in interest rates and roundaboutness, and the ABCT falls apart. The reswitching of techniques is precisely a counterexample to that relationship, as it claims there are situations in which lower interest rates do not lead to more roundabout productive struc- tures. The organization of this paper is as follows: the next section describes the reswitching of techniques as stated by Samuelson (1966) and the implication for the classical ABCT, based on a phys- ical measure of roundaboutness; section 3 analyzes the alternative of applying corporate finance to the ABCT following Cachanosky and Lewin (2014). Section 4 is a financial analysis of Samuelson’s example, argues why modified duration should replace Böhm- Bawerk’s APP as a measure of roundaboutness, and shows why it does not represent a paradox to the ABCT when the financial approach is used. Sections 5 and 6 address the question from two additional perspectives: a neoclassical with fully flexible prices but fixed techniques and the Austrian related dynamic efficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-567

Abstract In order for monetary policy’s interest rate channel to operate smoothly and effectively, the relevant retail interest rates of the real economy should react quickly and follow the movements of the prime rate. It has been observed that this connection has weakened since the financial crisis and it was suggested that the so called Weighted Average Cost of Liabilities (WACL) might be a better proxy for the banks’ marginal costs than the prime rate or interbank rate. In this study the WACL for Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania is calculated by applying cointegration tests and ARDL models. I examined whether their long-run relationships with the retail loan rates are more stable. Results: 1. Using the WACL instead of the interbank rate yields slightly more stable long-term relationships with the retail loan rates, and the WACL has been proved to be somewhat more stable than the interbank rate. 2. The interest rate pass-through has been efficient for the household loan rates in all three countries, but only in Romania for the corporate loan rates. 3. The results suggest that the central banks can effectively influence the commercial banks’ financing costs even in a low interest rate environment, although this cost represents only one component of the loan rates, and the movements of other components can offset the changes of the prime rate.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Neslihan Turguttopbas

Abstract The target of monetary policy is generally set as to create an environment of manageable employment and affordable long-term interest rates. However, priorities of central banks may differ depending on economic and financial circumstances of individual countries. Modern approaches to monetary policy transmission can be grouped under two headings, Money View and Credit View. The money view concentrates on interest rates to explain the effects of monetary policy on aggregate spending by creating an interest rate channel. The credit channel transmission approach focuses on the supply of credits by banks following a monetary policy shift in interest rates. In 2010, the Central Bank of Turkey (CBT) developed an interest rate corridor shaped by one-week and overnight repo lending to the financial banks to absorb excessive volatility caused by short-term capital inflows. Under this framework, the CBT implements its monetary policy in two ways; firstly it can alter the interest rates of weekly repo as well as O/N lending rate. Secondly, it can configure the funding structure it provides to the financial intermediaries. In such a framework, the interest rate transmission mechanism has been operated by two benchmark interest rates, one of which is the weighted average of the cost of funds provided by the CBT and the other is the interest rate in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) money market transactions at an overnight maturity. There is a strong co-movement between the interest rates and they are affected by the movements in the CBT lending rate in both directions. Interest rates applied to deposits and loans by banks are affected by the policy rate (CBT Average Funding Rate) and the market rate (BIST O/N Repo Rate).


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Jakob Lichtner ◽  
Marcus Riekeberg ◽  
Friedrich Thiessen ◽  
Thomas Maurer

Interest rate risk is often assessed through parallel yield curve shifts of 100, 200 or 400 basis points. In order to provide a more realistic view, we did simulations based on periods of growing interest rates that actually occurred in the past. These simulations show that non-bank deposits and non-bank loans react more strongly to rising interest rates than certain interbank and security positions. Existing research usually overestimates related risks slightly as it does not take the interest-elastic reactions of non-banks into account. We found three types of effects. Firstly, the direct earnings effect stems from changed market interest rates applied to constant balance sheet positions. This effect is typically measured by straightforward models. Secondly, to increase accuracy, we identified an indirect earnings effect. Customers react to interest rate changes, and therefore balance sheet positions increase or decrease. The size of this effect depends on how strongly they react, i. e. their interest elasticity. Thirdly, the induced earnings effect results from a bank’s reactions in an attempt to compensate for the changed business volume.


Author(s):  
Veljanovski Cento

This chapter addresses interest, which is awarded ‘to compensate a claimant from being kept out of his money’. Pre-judgment interest rates set by statute or the courts vary across the EU. In English law, where the claimant can prove loss of interest, it will be compensated as a damage claim. In some cases, the claimant has sought interest calculated using the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). Otherwise, the court has discretion to apply a judicial simple interest rate for the whole or part of the damage award, usually at the Bank of England Base rate plus 1% to 4%. The award of interest can be significant in a competition claim were the cartel has operated for many years and during periods of high interest rates. At common law, however, interest was not payable on damages; there were exceptions in equity.


Author(s):  
Suvojit Lahiri Chakravarty

This paper looks into the role of interest rate in the monetary transmission mechanism in India. It analyses the effect of the changes in the policy rate on the different segments of the financial market in India from the onset of Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), i.e, July 2000 onwards to March 2014. A VAR model comprising of interest rate, output, price and exchange rate is estimated for the same period, to study the effect of changes in the policy rate on the various macroeconomic variables. The policy rate is proxied as the monthly weighted average overnight call money rate i.e., CMR as this is the operating target of the RBI. Both the exercises show that interest rate channel has gained in importance for the Indian economy after the deregulation of interest rates and adoption of the new monetary operating framework.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Gülgün Çiğdem

In today’s world where the independence of central banks is questioned and the recessionary process is discussed, serious debates are experienced between economists and policy makers regarding the paradoxical relationship between two important macro-economic variables; Is inflation the cause of interest rate or is interest rate the cause of inflation? Determination of the causality and its direction is very crucial for the economies which are trying to extricate themselves from the high inflation – high interest rate spiral. The researchers searching for an answer to these discussions have conducted various analyses to test the validity of the Fisher Effect. In these analyses, inflation rate and nominal interest rate -as per the hypothesis- were considered as the variables. However, economic agents make their decisions depending on real values rather than nominal values. The purpose of this study is to provide a real and up-to-date approach to these debates which actually began in 1700s and have been ongoing in the triangle of financial markets-central banks-policy makers. For this purpose, the monthly averages regarding the 2011:01-2019:06 period of Turkey were calculated based on the Weighted Average Cost of Funding (WACF) daily data of The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) and subjected to the cointegration analyses with the annual CPI figures. While Engle-Granger Test was used to test the long-term relationship, Granger Causality Test was performed to determine the relationship and its direction in the short term through VECM. As a result of the analysis, bilateral causality among variables was determined in the short term. In other words, inflation is a cause of interest rate and interest rate is a cause of inflation. This study makes a contribution to the literature since no study, which detected a bilateral correlation, has been found.


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