GLOBAL BANK RISK AND MONETARY POLICY IN AN EMERGING ECONOMY

The global financial crisis was characterized by heightened financial risk in the USA, which spread to the rest of the world, including emerging economies. This paper constructs a core–periphery model with a global banking network and financial frictions. Due to a common-lender effect, when global banks lend to an emerging economy, heightened financial risk in the center depresses cross-border lending to the emerging economy, reducing real activities and exacerbating monetary policy trade-offs. As financial markets become more integrated, exchange rate flexibility becomes less welfare enhancing and active capital account policy becomes more welfare enhancing.

A Review of the Impact of External Shocks on Monetary Policy Effectiveness in Non-WAEMU Countries

In this paper, the extant literature on the impact of external shocks on monetary policy effectiveness with reference to non-WAEMU countries is reviewed. The importance of this literature review is to provide contemporary perspectives to scholars and policymakers on the relevance of the incidence of external shocks to the effectiveness of monetary policy with reference to non-WAEMU countries. The literature reviewed in this study shows that, on the whole, the extent and the degree to which external shocks are transmitted to the domestic economy substantially depend on a plethora of features, namely the absence of exchange rate flexibility; a strong export concentration, especially with respect to commodities; the level of global economic integration; restricted capacities of production; the absence of competitiveness in exports; over-reliance on foreign aid; foreign reserves that are not adequate and capital account openness.

Reserve Volatility and the Identification of Exchange Rate Regimes

Should exchange rate regime classifications be based purely on some measure of exchange rate flexibility, or should such flexibility be judged in proportion to the degree of exchange market pressure (EMP), as reflected in the behaviour of international reserves? Some authors have claimed that the best approach to classifying exchange rate regimes is to estimate to what extent EMP is absorbed in reserve variability rather than exchange rate variability. Empirical evidence is presented on the variability of reserves and exchange rates for 193 countries from 1980 to 2019. Pegged regimes do not display any more reserve volatility than floats. In most regimes there is a small but statistically significant positive correlation between reserve accumulation and exchange rate appreciation in monthly data, but this effect is no stronger in less flexible regimes, where intervention is expected to be greater. A flexibility index is constructed, based on the ratio of exchange rate flexibility to reserve volatility, and is compared to one based solely on exchange rate flexibility by investigating its conformity with the IMF de facto classification. The flexibility index that takes reserves into account does not improve the identification of pegs, but it helps to a limited extent to distinguish free floats from managed floats.

GLOBAL BANK RISK AND MONETARY POLICY IN AN EMERGING ECONOMY

The global financial crisis was characterized by heightened financial risk in the USA, which spread to the rest of the world, including emerging economies. This paper constructs a core–periphery model with a global banking network and financial frictions. Due to a common-lender effect, when global banks lend to an emerging economy, heightened financial risk in the center depresses cross-border lending to the emerging economy, reducing real activities, and exacerbating monetary policy trade-offs. As financial markets become more integrated, exchange rate flexibility becomes less welfare enhancing and active capital account policy becomes more welfare enhancing.

The renminbi will gradually check dollar dominance

Significance The share of Chinese central government bonds held by foreigners rose to 8% at end-October, from 1.2% at end-2019 as Chinese stock and bond funds were included in global indexes. The comments of Yi and others give salience to discussion of the renminbi challenging the dollar's pre-eminence as a global currency and reflect Beijing’s concern about US attempts to use the dollar’s dominance to contain its global influence. Impacts US use of financial and economic sanctions will encourage cross-border payments systems that can isolate transactions from the dollar. China will cautiously liberalise its capital account, raise renminbi exchange-rate flexibility and improve liquidity in its bond market. The EU, Switzerland and Japan do not want 'safe-haven' inflows because of the risk of currency appreciation hurting their real economies. At times of financial market stress (eg, COVID-19) the onus is on the Federal Reserve (Fed) to ensure adequate global access to dollars. The build-up of US debt during the pandemic poses a long-term risk to the dollar's status if US growth weakens permanently.

Destabilizing Stability? Exchange Rate Arrangements and Foreign Currency Debt

Emerging markets (EMs) often respond to shocks by intervening in foreign exchange (FX) markets and thus preventing full exchange rate adjustment. This response can serve to dampen the effect of shocks and increase monetary policy space but may also incentivize economic participants to increase risk taking and take on more FX debt. This paper empirically analyzes the role of exchange rate flexibility in affecting such risk taking, by using rolling correlations and difference-in-difference estimations. The results suggest that a shift towards greater exchange rate flexibility often coincides with a decline in external FX debt. The findings also highlight the importance of using complementary policies to deal with financial stability issues related to the exchange rate, such as FX-specific macroprudential policies and policies aimed at promoting financial development.