Transmission mechanisms for monetary policy in emerging market economies

This volume, which is a follow-up to BIS Policy Paper No 3 (January 1998), analyses the major changes in monetary policy transmission in the emerging market economies (EMEs) over the past decade and highlights a number of implications. It is based on two days of discussions among senior central bankers at a meeting at the BIS in December 2006.

Fiscal dominance has been largely overcome and monetary policy frameworks are now more credible. The overview paper finds that central banks have become more flexible in their operations. The interest rate channels of monetary policy have become much stronger, and the relative importance of some of the traditional channels such as the credit channel has declined, at least in normal times. Better monetary policies have resulted in lower and less volatile inflation in most EMEs. An analysis of the transmission of monetary policy to long-term interest rates notes that the impact of the policy rates on long-term rates has been moderated by more stable inflation expectations, which has allowed central banks to be less aggressive in adjusting policies. External factors appear to be exerting an increasing influence on domestic long-term rates. A related analysis finds that greater globalisation has resulted in domestic short-term rates being significantly affected by foreign interest rates, particularly in countries with high capital mobility and with managed exchange rates. Finally, the pass-through from exchange rate changes to domestic inflation has fallen since 2001, while the sensitivity of inflation to foreign price changes has increased.