Posted

May 17, 2013 12:16:06 AM

Date

2013-04

Author

Karl Habermeier, Luis Jacome, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, Chikako Baba, Jiaqian Chen, Simon Gray, Tomas Mondino, Tahsin Saadi Sedik, Hideyuki Tanimoto, Kenichi Ueda, Nico Valckx (MCM), Giovanni Dell’Ariccia, Andrea Pescatori, Fabian Valencia (RES), Tamim Bayoumi, Silvia Sgherri, and Manju Ismael (SPR), with contributions from Raphael Lam (APD), Bernardin Akitoby, Takuji Komatsuzaki, and Ariel Binder (FAD), Kelly Eckhold, Frederic Lambert, and Erik Oppers (MCM), as well as Ben Hunt and Dirk Muir (RES). Helpful comments were provided by a group of external advisors comprising Vittorio Corbo, Charles Goodhart, David Longworth, Lucas Papademos, and Charles Wyplosz. The paper also benefitted from discussions with representatives of central banks and other official agencies, summarized in a supplement to this paper.

Affiliation

International Monetary Fund

Title

UNCONVENTIONAL MONETARY POLICIES—RECENT EXPERIENCE AND PROSPECTS

Summary /
Abstract

This paper addresses three questions about unconventional monetary policies. First, what policies were tried, and with what objectives? Second, were policies effective? And third, what role might these policies continue to play in the future?

Central banks in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and euro area adopted a series of unconventional monetary policies with two broad goals. The first was to restore the functioning of financial markets and intermediation. The second was to provide further monetary policy accommodation at the zero lower bound. These two goals are clearly related, as both ultimate
ly aim to ensure macroeconomic stability. But each relies on different instruments: the first on targeted liquidity provision and private asset purchases, and the second on forward guidance and bond purchases.

These policies largely succeeded at achieving their domestic goals, and were especially effective at the time of greatest financial turmoil. Market functioning was broadly restored, and tail risks declined significantly. Policies also decreased long-term bond yields, and in some cases credit spreads. Growth and price stability also benefited, although findings are less clear cut, given the long lags and unstable
relations between variables, and the unresolved question of counterfactuals.

Unconventional monetary policies had a mixed effect on the rest of the world. Early announcements buoyed asset prices globally, and likely benefited trade. Later announcements had smaller effects and increased capital flows to emerging markets, with a shift to Latin America and Asia. Sound macroeconomic policies can help manage these capital flows. Yet, when flows become excessive, with the risk of sudden reversals, they can give rise to policy strains in recipient countries.

Looking ahead, unconventional monetary policies may continue to be warranted if economic conditions do not improve or even worsen. Yet, their growing scale raises risks. Some of these can be mitigated with macroprudential policies. A key concern is that monetary policy is called on to do too much, and that the breathing space it offers is not used to engage in needed fiscal, structural, and financial sector reforms. These reforms are essential to ensuring macroeconomic stability and entrenching the recovery, eventually allowing for the unwinding of unconventional monetary
policies.

Keywords

Unconventional monetary policies, zero bound, financial markets, monetary policy accommodation.

URL

http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2013/041813a.pdf

See

More articles ...