Interest Rate Pass-Through in the Euro Area during the Financial Crisis: a Multivariate Regime-Switching Approach

In this paper we use a Markov-switching vector autoregressive model to analyse the interest rate pass-through between interbank and retail bank interest rates in the Euro area. Empirical results, based on monthly data for the period 2003-2011, show that during periods of financial distress bank lending rates to both households and non-financial corporations show a reduction of their degree of pass-through from the interbank rate. Interest rates on loans to non-financial firms are found to be more affected by changes in the interbank rate than loans to households, both in times of high volatility and in normal market conditions.