Reserve requirements and capital flows in Latin America

Michael Brei and Ramon Moreno

No 741, BIS Working Papers from Bank for International Settlements

Abstract: The experience of a number of central banks in emerging economies indicates that capital flows can pose a dilemma. For example, raising policy rates can attract more capital inflows by raising deposit rates. It has been suggested, however, that raising reserve requirements instead of the policy rate can address this dilemma, as deposit rates will not necessarily increase, even if lending rates rise. To investigate this possibility, this paper examines how banks adjust loan and deposit rates in response to changes in reserve requirements. We use data on 128 banks from seven Latin American countries over the period 2000-14. Our results indicate that higher reserve requirements are associated with higher loan rates, whereas deposit rates remain unchanged during normal times and decrease during periods of large capital inflows. Reserve requirements may therefore be a way to mitigate the dilemma posed by capital inflows in some Latin American economies.

Keywords: reserve requirements; monetary policy; capital flows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C53 E43 E52 G21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-cba, nep-mac and nep-mon
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Reserve requirements and capital flows in Latin America (2019)
Working Paper: Reserve requirements and capital flows in Latin America (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bis:biswps:741

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