Volume 20, Issue 4 October 2024

Sterilized Interventions May Not Be So Sterilized

Abstract

It is widely believed that sterilized FX interventions do not affect domestic currency interest rates. The reason is the word “sterilized.” Yet we show in this paper that when a collateral base for central bank operations isn’t big enough, sterilized interventions may still affect interest rates, loan extension, and, hence, real economy (beyond the effects of altered exchange rate). The mechanism is simple and works through the liquidity risk premium. We demonstrate the importance of this channel through theoretical as well as empirical perspectives. Our modeling framework also provides interesting insights about a relationship between a liquidity risk and reserve requirements, among other results.

Authors

  • Shalva Mkhatrishvili
  • Giorgi Tsutskiridze
  • Lasha Arevadze

JEL codes

  • E43
  • E58
  • F31

Other papers in this issue

Toni Ahnert and Katrin Assenmacher and Peter Hoffmann and Agnese Leonello and Cyril Monnet and Davide Porcellacchia

Tobias Adrian and Vitor Gaspar and Francis Vitek

Laura Acevedo and Marc Hofstetter

Juan M Londono and Stijn Claessens and Ricardo Correa