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The Exchange Rate as an Instrument at Zero Interest Rates: The Case of the Czech Republic
Franta, Michal ; Holub, Tomáš ; Král, Petr ; Kubicová, Ivana ; Šmídková, Kateřina ; Vašíček, Bořek
This study examines the use of the exchange rate by the Czech National Bank as a monetary policy instrument at the zero lower bound on interest rates. It provides a review of the economic literature on unconventional monetary policy instruments and particularly on the possibility of using the exchange rate. It explains the CNB’s reasons for further easing monetary policy and for choosing the exchange rate instrument and its specific level, and discusses its expected benefits in the case of the Czech Republic. It also explains why the CNB ultimately decided to transparently declare a one-sided exchange rate commitment with potentially unlimited foreign exchange interventions. The article concludes by assessing the impacts of the exchange rate weakening on the Czech economy to date, as compared to what the CNB had expected, and by describing the public debate of the CNB’s action and related changes in its communication strategy.
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What We Know About Monetary Policy Transmission in the Czech Republic: Collection of Empirical Results
Babecká Kucharčuková, Oxana ; Franta, Michal ; Hájková, Dana ; Král, Petr ; Kubicová, Ivana ; Podpiera, Anca ; Saxa, Branislav
This paper concentrates on describing the available empirical findings on monetary policy transmission in the Czech Republic. Besides the overall impact of monetary policy on inflation and output, it is useful to study its individual channels, in particular the interest rate channel, the exchange rate channel, and the wealth channel. The results confirm that the transmission of monetary impulses to the real economy works in an intuitive direction and to an intuitive extent. Our analyses show, however, that the global financial and economic crisis might have somewhat slowed and weakened the transmission. We found an indication of such a change in the functioning of the interest rate channel, where elevated risk premiums played a major role.
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