IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecaffa/v35y2015i1p75-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is It Time to Revisit the Savings Rate Floor in the ECCU?

Author

Listed:
  • Allister Mounsey
  • D. Tracy Polius

Abstract

Member states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) experienced a secular decline in growth following the great recession circa 2008, resulting in increased unemployment and social dislocation. Given the ECCU's currency board arrangement and current fiscal challenges, policy options for resuscitating growth are limited to supply-side adjustments. This paper contends that the 3 per cent interest rate floor on savings deposits has contributed to higher lending rates and lower levels of capital formation. Ultimately it is a drag on growth and a threat to the banking sector's health as it has resulted in reduced risk compensation when default and other banking sector risks have risen. Revisiting the floor is advocated as an integral component of this structural adjustment policy response.

Suggested Citation

  • Allister Mounsey & D. Tracy Polius, 2015. "Is It Time to Revisit the Savings Rate Floor in the ECCU?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 75-92, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:35:y:2015:i:1:p:75-92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ecaf.12105
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernanke, Ben & Gertler, Mark & Gilchrist, Simon, 1996. "The Financial Accelerator and the Flight to Quality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(1), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Tobias Adrian & Hyun Song Shin, 2008. "Liquidity, monetary policy, and financial cycles," Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 14(Jan).
    3. Bruce Greenwald & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1993. "New and Old Keynesians," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 23-44, Winter.
    4. Bernanke, Ben & Gertler, Mark, 1989. "Agency Costs, Net Worth, and Business Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 14-31, March.
    5. Tobias Adrian & Hyun Song Shin, 2008. "Liquidity and financial cycles," BIS Working Papers 256, Bank for International Settlements.
    6. Oludele Akinloye Akinboade & Daniel Makina, 2010. "Econometric analysis of bank lending and business cycles in South Africa," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(29), pages 3803-3811.
    7. Bruce C. Greenwald & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1993. "Financial Market Imperfections and Business Cycles," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 77-114.
    8. Bill Gerrard, 1996. "Competing schools of thought in macroeconomics - an ever-emerging consensus?," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(1), pages 53-69, January.
    9. Sealey, C W, Jr, 1980. "Deposit Rate-Setting, Risk Aversion, and the Theory of Depository Financial Intermediaries," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(5), pages 1139-1154, December.
    10. Mrs. Ruby Randall, 1998. "Interest Rate Spreads in the Eastern Caribbean," IMF Working Papers 1998/059, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ms. Alla Myrvoda & Julien Reynaud, 2018. "Monetary Policy Transmission in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union," IMF Working Papers 2018/070, International Monetary Fund.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    2. Gilles, Philippe & Huchet, Nicolas & Gauvin, Marie-Sophie, 2012. "Politique monétaire, choix de portefeuille du secteur bancaire et canal de la prise de risque," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 88(2), pages 175-196, Juin.
    3. Roberto Tamborini, 2010. "The Macroeconomics of Imperfect Capital Markets: Whither Saving-Investment Imbalances?," Contributions to Economics, in: Giorgio Calcagnini & Enrico Saltari (ed.), The Economics of Imperfect Markets, chapter 0, pages 137-166, Springer.
    4. Drescher, Christian & Herz, Bernhard, 2010. "Measuring Monetary Conditions in US Asset Markets - A Market Specific Approach," MPRA Paper 27384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Riccetti, Luca & Russo, Alberto & Gallegati, Mauro, 2013. "Leveraged network-based financial accelerator," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1626-1640.
    6. Marek Lubiński, 2012. "Wpływ akceleratora finansowego na przebieg wahań koniunkturalnych [ Impact of Financial Accelerator on Business Cycle Fluctuations ]," Prace i Materiały, Instytut Rozwoju Gospodarczego (SGH), vol. 88(1), pages 63-84.
    7. Delli Gatti, Domenico & Gallegati, Mauro & Greenwald, Bruce & Russo, Alberto & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2010. "The financial accelerator in an evolving credit network," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1627-1650, September.
    8. Queijo, Virginia, 2005. "How Important are Financial Frictions in the U.S. and Euro Area?," Seminar Papers 738, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    9. Colombier, Carsten, 2011. "Konjunktur und Wachstum [Business cycles fluctuations and long-term growth]," MPRA Paper 104739, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Mr. Fabian Valencia, 2008. "Banks’ Precautionary Capital and Persistent Credit Crunches," IMF Working Papers 2008/248, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Repullo, Rafael & Suarez, Javier, 2000. "Entrepreneurial moral hazard and bank monitoring: A model of the credit channel," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1931-1950, December.
    12. Bacchetta, Philippe & Caminal, Ramon, 2000. "Do capital market imperfections exacerbate output fluctuations?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 449-468, March.
    13. Galindo, Arturo & Schiantarelli, Fabio, 2002. "Credit Constraints in Latin America: An Overview of the Micro Evidence," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1438, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. Justine Pedrono & Aurélien Violon, 2016. "Banks' Leverage Procyclicality: Does US Dollar Diversification Really Matter?," Working Papers halshs-01216658, HAL.
    15. Igan, Deniz & Kabundi, Alain & Nadal De Simone, Francisco & Pinheiro, Marcelo & Tamirisa, Natalia, 2011. "Housing, credit, and real activity cycles: Characteristics and comovement," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 210-231, September.
    16. Morana, Claudio, 2014. "Insights on the global macro-finance interface: Structural sources of risk factor fluctuations and the cross-section of expected stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 64-79.
    17. Jones, John B, 2003. "The Dynamic Effects of Firm-Level Borrowing Constraints," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(5), pages 743-762, October.
    18. David Martinez-Miera & Rafael Repullo, 2019. "Monetary Policy, Macroprudential Policy, and Financial Stability," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 809-832, August.
    19. Riccardo Fiorentini & Roberto Tamborini, 2002. "Monetary Policy, Credit and Aggregate Supply: The Evidence from Italy," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 31(3), pages 451-491, November.
    20. Christiane Baumeister & Eveline Durinck & Gert Peersman, 2008. "Liquidity, Inflation and Asset Prices in a Time-Varying Framework for the Euro Area," Discussion Papers 08/06, University of Nottingham, Centre for Finance, Credit and Macroeconomics (CFCM).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:35:y:2015:i:1:p:75-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0265-0665 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.