scholarly journals The Normalization of the European Central Bank’s Monetary Policy from an Austrian Perspective

2018 ◽  
pp. 359-371
Author(s):  
Leef H. Dierks

After several years of historically low interest rates and quantitative easing, the European Central Bank (ECB) has finally started wind-ing down its ultra-accommodative monetary policy in late 2018. Among the first steps tapering its asset purchase programme (APP), which foresees monthly purchases of up to €30bn per month until September 2018 — «or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of infla-tion consistent with its inflation aim» (ECB, 2018a). By then, pur-chases of euro area fixed income securities on behalf of the ECB will have mounted to as much as €2,550bn or almost 90% of euro area GDP (€2,834bn in market prices in Q4 2017, the latest date for which data were available (ECB, 2018b)). Further, according to market esti-mates, the first hike of the main refinancing rate, which was slashed to 0% in March 2016, could emerge in Q1 2019, thereby following a tightening of the monetary policy the US Federal Reserve (FED) had already started in December 2015 (FED, 2015).

e-Finanse ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
Natalia Białek

Abstract This paper argues that the loose monetary policy of two of the world’s most important financial institutions-the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank-were ultimately responsible for the outburst of global financial crisis of 2008-09. Unusually low interest rates in 2001- 05 compelled investors to engage in high risk endeavors. It also encouraged some governments to finance excessive domestic consumption with foreign loans. Emerging financial bubbles burst first in mortgage markets in the U.S. and subsequently spread to other countries. The paper also reviews other causes of the crisis as discussed in literature. Some of them relate directly to weaknesses inherent in the institutional design of the European Monetary Union (EMU) while others are unique to members of the EMU. It is rather striking that recommended remedies tend not to take into account the policies of the European Central Bank.


Author(s):  
Patterson C. Ekeocha ◽  
Elias A. Udeaja

This paper examines spillover effects of U.S monetary policy on macroeconomic fundamentals in Nigeria from January 1985 to December 2018. The study period is partitioned to account for conventional monetary policy (CMP) period, January 1985 to August 2007 and unconventional monetary policy (UMP) period, September 2007 to December 2018. Guided by relevant pre-tests, we find BEKK-VARMA-CCCMGARCH as the most appropriate model. The study finds significant spillover effects of U.S CMP and UMP on interest rate, exchange rate and inflation rate in Nigeria. We, however, observe that while CMP may be a significant accelerator of shocks persistence on interest rates and exchange rates, the extent to which the UMP accelerate shocks in inflation rate tends to vary for different measures of quantitative easing. Thus, in addition to past own shocks and past own conditional variance of these macro fundamentals, understanding their dynamics cannot be in isolation of their vulnerability to external shocks and volatility due to spillover effects of monetary actions in other economies. In formulating monetary policy, it is therefore, imperative for the Central Bank of Nigeria to monitor the monetary policy process of the US to hedge against shocks spillovers.


Author(s):  
Leef Dierks

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) unconventional monetary policy has so far failed to deliver the much-anticipated results. In October 2019, the euro area’s (EA-19) HICP-inflation fell to a three-year low of just 0.7% year-over-year (y/y), thus being far below the ECB’s goal of “below, but close to 2.00% over the medium term”. By November 2019, HICP-inflation had recovered to a modest 1.0% (y/y) with seasonally-adjusted Eurozone GDP growing at a disappointing 1.2% (y/y) in Q3 2019 compared with the same quarter of the previous year (Eurostat, 2019). Inevitably, these developments raise the question to what extent the ECB might eventually consider extending its Quantitative Easing (QE) program, i.e. its €2.6tn asset purchase programs (APP) beyond the ongoing €20bn-per-month purchase of fixed income securities. Any further easing could, for example, foresee an enhancement of the securities purchased to inter alia include shares of stock. In contrast to widely held beliefs, this by no means were an entirely unprecedented phenomenon, but corresponded to measures (so-called comprehensive monetary easing, CME) adopted by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) as early as 2010 (Bank of Japan, 2010a). Notwithstanding the BoJ’s CME, however, HICP-inflation in Japan fell to 0.0% (y/y) in December 2019, the latest date for which data were available, which caused annual HICP-inflation for the full year to drop to only 0.8% (y/y). Based on the experiences gained in Japan, and notwithstanding a potential revision of the ECB’s inflation target to a 1.5% to 2.5% range, this contribution will analyse the extent to which an expansion of the ECB’s set of hitherto employed unconventional monetary policies through CME could sustainably stimulate economic growth - and inflation - in the euro area. Preliminary results suggest a rather muted impact.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriy Nikolayev ◽  

The article is devoted to the study of conditions of application and influence of non-traditional monetary policy of central banks of developed countries on national economies and economies of emerging market countries. Based on critical analysis and systematization of basic research on the analysis of non-traditional monetary policy and its impact on the economies of different countries, it is substantiated that non-traditional monetary policy is a set of measures aimed at restoring the transmission mechanism and eliminating financial market imbalances. The main tools of non-traditional monetary policy are - previous management, quantitative easing; credit easing; negative interest rates, qualitative mitigation. Relevant areas of research on the financial performance of economies were also justified, as monetary policy directly affects interest rates, money supply, exchange rates, availability of credit, and through the financial sector to other sectors of the economy. During the aggravation of the economic and debt crisis, which had a negative impact on the Eurozone countries, investors' interest in CEE countries increased due to higher interest rates and the opportunity to make more profits. The study of the impact of the ECB's monetary policy on the financial indicators of Central and Eastern Europe revealed that the ECB's unconventional policy, including quantitative easing aimed at lowering long-term interest rates, affected the yield on government bonds of almost all EU countries, not only member states. euro area, which generally declined after 2014. Non-traditional monetary policy and an increase in the ECB's balance sheet also affect investment flows to CEE countries, but are mainly debt instruments in both direct and portfolio investment. The opposite situation is observed in the Eurozone countries with a high debt burden, especially in Greece and Italy. Despite the fact that the ECB's policy has led the euro area countries with a high level of debt to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, there is a tendency to increase the share of public debt payments to GDP. In this situation, the ECB simply cannot significantly change the purpose of its monetary policy, because any, even small, increase in the discount rate will lead to a new debt crisis in the Eurozone with its epicenter in Italy and Greece. The study of the impact of non-traditional policies of the Bank of Japan, the Fed and the ECB on the economy of Ukraine confirms the hypothesis that the actions of the ECB have the greatest impact on the financial performance of Ukraine. The analysis shows the impact of non-traditional monetary policy on the exchange rate of the Ukrainian hryvnia to the euro, US dollar and Japanese yen, but it was not significant. This is due to the fact that monetary policy in Ukraine only in 2015 actually moved from a fixed exchange rate to a floating exchange rate and began to apply inflation targeting. Announcements of non-traditional monetary policy have also affected government bond yields and stock indices, but the Ukrainian stock market is underdeveloped and has little effect. The main influence was the first programs of non-traditional monetary policy of the ECB, the USA and the Bank of Japan. In times when non-traditional measures were just being introduced and difficult to regulate and predict. Thus, it was proved that, on the one hand, unconventional monetary policy can stimulate economic growth, and on the other hand, create significant risks for further monetary policy opportunities to counter future crises.


Author(s):  
Sebastjan Strasek ◽  
Tadej Kelc

The paper is examines the issue if the U.S. technology sector is in the bubble. Our analysis is based on the study of relative indicators, especially on price-to-earnings ratio. We studied the last two historic bubbles and analyzed the current state on the U.S. stock market. We find that U.S. stock market is heavily overvalued, which can be argued with high values of the relative indicators compared to the historical average. Some of them indicate that market was valued higher only during the Great Depression in 1929 and during the technological bubble in 2000. Remarkably high values are the result of low interest rates and quantitative easing. The current expansive monetary policy is encouraging risky businesses and increasing margin debt. With potential abatement of tax rates and other measures of expansive fiscal politics, stock markets could reach even higher values.


Author(s):  
Sylwia Gwoździewicz ◽  
Dariusz Prokopowicz ◽  
Daniel Szybowski

The development of market financial system in Poland was determined to a large extent, globally operating processes of the situation on the financial markets and the processes of adaptation to the normative standards and technological European Union. As part of anti-crisis measures leading central banks, Anglo-Saxon and European financial system have launched a high-budget system, interventionist assistance programs. Finally, the cost of rescuing the financial system was thrown to the proverbial John Doe ie. Most numerous segment of bank customers. Currentlyperformed research carried out in previous years, interventionist government programs to rescue the anti-crisis measures of the key players of the economy from bankruptcy financial and activation of demand, investment, production and liquidity in the credit market. In terms of development-oriented activities of government intervention, the European Central Bank continues to apply mild monetary policy of low interest rates in order to improve liquidity in the financial system and offering cheap money for the development of pro-investment share of credit of commercial banks operating in the European Union.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Jessica Hastenteufel ◽  
Lena Fuchs

The current phase of low interest rates poses major challenges for banks. A continuous decline in the interest result, which is so important for the profitability of banks, has been observed for years, as it is becoming increasingly difficult for banks to generate sufficient income from the interest margin. This is partly due to the European Central Bank’s expansive monetary policy. However, other factors, such as advancing digitization, also play a role here. The structure of the German banking market and the mostly strong focus of German banks on interest-bearing business are also increasingly becoming a problem. Still, the question arises, whether the current phase of low interest rates is actually a serious threat to banks or whether they are complaining at a high level.


Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Renne

AbstractThis paper presents a no-arbitrage yield-curve model that explicitly incorporates the central-bank policy rate. This model is consistent with the existence of a lower bound for nominal interest rates, which makes it particularly relevant in the current context of extremely low interest rates. Changes in the policy rates depend on the monetary-policy phase, that can be either in an easing, status quo or tightening mode. The estimation of the model, based on daily euro-area yield data, reveals the strong influence of the monetary-policy phases on the shape of the yield curve. This relationship can, in turn, be exploited to estimate the probabilities of being in the different monetary-policy phases. The model is also used to compute term premiums, that are the parts of the yields reflecting the aversion of investors to interest rate risk. The results point to the existence of statistically significant premiums for many dates, even for short horizons.


2004 ◽  
Vol 187 ◽  
pp. 93-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter McAdam ◽  
Julian Morgan

This paper examines the effects of changes in Euro Area interest rates using macroeconomic models. It examines the results of a harmonised monetary policy simulation at the Euro Area level using the National Institute of Economic and Social Research's Global Economic Model (NiGEM) and the European Central Bank's Area Wide Model (AWM). Comparison is also drawn with the aggregate results from Euro Area National Central Bank models as reported in van Els et al. (2001). Overall, the results across the different models are broadly consistent with what might be regarded as the stylised facts of the monetary transmission mechanism. That is to say that, following a policy tightening, there is an initial fall in output consisting of a more pronounced investment response and a less pronounced consumption response. This output fall is accompanied by protracted price dynamics.


Author(s):  
Irena Pyka ◽  
Aleksandra Nocoń

Due to the implementation of non-standard monetary policy by the European Central Bank, concentrated in the first part of the financial crisis mainly on the unconventional open market operations, and in the second on the Quantitative Easing policy, the exit strategies and monetary policy normalization have become the subject of intensified discussion. The concept of a return to "normal" monetary policy of the ECB will require the implementation of two aspects: raising of interest rates and reduction of the size of central bank balance sheet. However, it is undisputed that the exit strategies of the ECB could be implemented only after completing of the asset purchase program and stabilization of euro area public finances. It seems that at this moment the monetary policy of Eurozone will have to wait. The main aim of the study is to identify the determinants of the monetary policy normalization of the European Central Bank. Particular attention will be paid to the conditions of normalization relating to the support for creation of economic recovery in the euro area, the increase of inflation towards the inflation target, stimulation of dynamics of lending activity and the situation on the financial market. The following research methods will be used: the literature studies, including domestic and foreign literature, case studies, cause and effect analysis, observation analysis as well as synthesis analysis. 


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