IMF Working Papers

Macroeconomic Impact of Foreign Exchange Intervention: Some Cross-country Empirical Findings

By Zhongxia Jin, Haobin Wang, Yue Zhao

April 30, 2021

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Zhongxia Jin, Haobin Wang, and Yue Zhao. Macroeconomic Impact of Foreign Exchange Intervention: Some Cross-country Empirical Findings, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2021) accessed September 18, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Based on VAR analyses across 26 countries, we show that, although foreign exchange intervention (FXI) is effective in stabilizing the nominal exchange rate in the short run, its impacts on the real exchange rate are less significant: Limitations on nominal exchange rate flexibility may induce adjustments to the real exchange rate through domestic prices. We find that countries that intervene more heavily in response to external shocks experience greater general and asset price volatility, which is not conducive to countering the impact of external shocks. We show that China’s macroeconomic responses to external shocks are broadly consistent with international experiences among intervening countries. The simple methodological framework adopted in this paper is meant to examine a broad set of macroeconomic variables and bears limitations; our findings serve to motivate more structural analysis on FXI’s macroeconomic impacts going forward.

Subject: Asset prices, Exchange rates, Financial services, Foreign exchange, Nominal effective exchange rate, Prices, Real exchange rates, Real interest rates

Keywords: Asset price volatility, Asset prices, Exchange rates, Floaters IRF, Global, Housing price IRF, Nominal effective exchange rate, Nominal exchange rate IRF, Real exchange rates, Real interest rates, Stock price IRF

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    28

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2021/126

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2021126

  • ISBN:

    9781513571959

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941