The Bank of Russia medium-run monetary policy course is to remain unchanged: the regulator will continue its efforts to bring the inflation rate down to 4% in 2017. This follows from the draft of the Guidelines for the Single State Monetary policy in 2016 and for 2017 and 2018. For this goal to...

South Africa has attracted substantial inflows of foreign capital since the 2008 global financial crisis, but this has not coincided with or resulted in major changes in financial intermediation – including in the shadow banking sector. Instead, debt growth has been concentrated in the public...

This paper compares the performance of various diversification strategies regarding foreign exchange reserves. The aim is to provide central banks with guidelines in portfolio allocation. We pay particular attention to the situation of upward pressures on U.S. interest rates by implementing our...

In recent years, many money and repo rates in the United States have been between zero and 25 basis points. As Fed's liftoff approaches, the question of the level of these rates (and the markets that determine them) becomes increasingly important. The paper discusses (i) whether the Fed can...

In times of financial distress, central banks provide unlimited liquidity to avoid fire sales. In response, banks raise their demand for collateral assets, and the short-term scarcity of collateral securities leads to higher prices, the Fire Buy premium. To avoid collateral scarcity, central...

Central banks, given their relevance in the international financial market, should be aware of their risk exposure. This study analyzes the evolution of market risk exposure of the central banks of developed and emerging countries in the 2003-2011 period, which includes the 2008 crisis. The...

Quantitative easing à la ECB has produced so far an impact on long-term nominal rates through ex ante channels: signalling channels, term duration channels, and risk premia channels. The term duration channel will also lead to a lengthening of the average maturity of government debts, with...

This paper focuses on how changes in financial plumbing of the markets may impact themonetary policy options as central banks contemplate lift off from zero lower bound (ZLB). Under the proposed regulations, banks will face leverage ratio constraints. As a result of quantitative easing (QE),...

This paper predicts phases of the financial cycle by using a continuous financial stress measure in a Markov switching framework. The debt service ratio and property market variables signal a transition to a high financial stress regime, while economic sentiment indicators provide signals for a...

This paper aims at estimating the impact of the recent Asset Purchase Programs implemented by the ECB – known as Quantitative easing (QE) – on external assets and liabilities recorded in one economy's International Investment Position (IIP). Our analysis focused on the case of France. We...