Global financial integration, monetary policy and reserve accumulation. Assessing the limits in emerging economies

This paper assesses whether domestic costs of reserve accumulation -and in particular monetary costs- constitute an eventual limit to the process in emerging markets. We find that sterilization is the first measure to deal with these costs. Then, we turn to study whether diminishing ability to deal with the monetary inflows through sterilization is an effective limit to the process, Indeed, when the scope for sterilization is reduced, accumulation diminishes. However, this constraint, albeit relevant in practice, has not constituted an effective limit to accumulation, hitherto.