IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bis/bisblt/21.html

Central banks' response to Covid-19 in advanced economies

Author

Listed:
  • Paolo Cavallino
  • Fiorella De Fiore

Abstract

Central banks in advanced economies reacted swiftly and forcefully to the Covid-19 pandemic, deploying the full range of crisis tools within weeks. The initial response focused primarily on easing financial stress and ensuring a smooth flow of credit to the private non-financial sector.The pandemic triggered complementary responses from monetary and fiscal authorities. Fiscal backstops and loan guarantees supported central bank actions. Asset purchases, designed to achieve central banks' objectives, helped contain the costs of fiscal expansions. The footprint of central banks' measures will be sizeable. Across the five largest advanced economies, balance sheets are projected to grow on average by 15-23% of GDP before end-2020 and to remain large in the near future.

Suggested Citation

  • Paolo Cavallino & Fiorella De Fiore, 2020. "Central banks' response to Covid-19 in advanced economies," BIS Bulletins 21, Bank for International Settlements.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:bisblt:21
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull21.pdf
    File Function: Full PDF document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull21.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Schrimpf & Hyun Song Shin & Vladyslav Sushko, 2020. "Leverage and margin spirals in fixed income markets during the Covid-19 crisis," BIS Bulletins 2, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Stefan Avdjiev & Egemen Eren & Patrick McGuire, 2020. "Dollar funding costs during the Covid-19 crisis through the lens of the FX swap market," BIS Bulletins 1, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Enrique Alberola-Ila & Yavuz Arslan & Gong Cheng & Richhild Moessner, 2020. "The fiscal response to the Covid-19 crisis in advanced and emerging market economies," BIS Bulletins 23, Bank for International Settlements.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    RePEc Biblio mentions

    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Economic policy > Money and monetary policy

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Galindo Gil, Hamilton, 2021. "What kind of firm is more responsive to the unconventional monetary policy?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 188-200.
    2. Kakhkharov, Jakhongir & Bianchi, Robert J., 2022. "COVID-19 and policy responses: Early evidence in banks and FinTech stocks," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Bob Hancke & Toon Van Overbeke & Dustin Voss, 2021. "Similar but different? Comparing economic policy responses to the Corona Crisis in the UK and Germany," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 165, European Institute, LSE.
    4. Peter A.G. van Bergeijk, 2021. "Pandemic Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 20401.
    5. Javier G. Gómez-Pineda, 2020. "The depth, length and shape of the covid-19 recession conveyed in 2020 growth forecasts," Borradores de Economia 1123, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    6. Peipei, Wang & Eyvazov, Elchin & Giyasova, Zeynab & Kazimova, Asli, 2023. "The nexus between natural resource rents and financial wealth on economic recovery: Evidence from European Union economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    7. David M. Arseneau & José Fillat & Molly Mahar & Donald P. Morgan & Skander J. Van den Heuvel, 2021. "COVID Response: The Main Street Lending Program," Staff Reports 984, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Stewart, Robert & Chowdhury, Murshed, 2021. "Banking sector distress and economic growth resilience: Asymmetric effects," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    9. Feinstein, Zachary & Hałaj, Grzegorz, 2023. "Interbank asset-liability networks with fire sale management," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Ferrero, Andrea & Habib, Maurizio Michael & Stracca, Livio & Venditti, Fabrizio, 2022. "Leaning against the global financial cycle," Working Paper Series 2763, European Central Bank.
    11. repec:ers:journl:v:xxiv:y:2021:i:3:p:229-240 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. David M. Arseneau & José Fillat & Molly Mahar & Donald P. Morgan & Skander J. Van den Heuvel, 2022. "The Main Street Lending Program," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 28(1), June.
    13. Francesco Fasano & Maurizio Rocca, 2024. "Local versus national banking development in Europe: who is the winner?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 14(1), pages 227-256, March.

    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. Fernando Eguren Martin & Mark Joy & Claudia Maurini & Alessandro Moro & Valerio Nispi Landi & Alessandro Schiavone & Carlos van Hombeeck, 2020. "Capital flows during the pandemic: lessons for a more resilient international financial architecture," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 589, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    2. Matteo Aquilina & Giulio Cornelli & Nikola Tarashev, 2025. "Commonality under pressure: banks and funds," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    3. Carlos Cantú & Paolo Cavallino & Fiorella De Fiore & James Yetman, 2021. "A global database on central banks' monetary responses to Covid-19," BIS Working Papers 934, Bank for International Settlements.
    4. Raphael Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Covid-19, cash, and the future of payments," BIS Bulletins 3, Bank for International Settlements.
    5. Claudio Borio, 2020. "The Covid-19 economic crisis: dangerously unique," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 181-190, October.
    6. Egemen Eren & Philip Wooldridge, 2021. "Non-bank financial institutions and the functioning of government bond markets," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 119, May.
    7. Boris Hofmann & Ilhyock Shim & Hyun Song Shin, 2020. "Emerging market economy exchange rates and local currency bond markets amid the Covid-19 pandemic," BIS Bulletins 5, Bank for International Settlements.
    8. Marlene Amstad & Giulio Cornelli & Leonardo Gambacorta & Dora Xia, 2020. "Investors' risk attitudes in the pandemic and the stock market: new evidence based on internet searches," BIS Bulletins 25, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. Emanuel Kohlscheen & Benoit Mojon & Daniel Rees, 2020. "The macroeconomic spillover effects of the pandemic on the global economy," BIS Bulletins 4, Bank for International Settlements.
    10. Ľuboš Pástor & M Blair Vorsatz & Jeffrey Pontiff, 0. "Mutual Fund Performance and Flows during the COVID-19 Crisis," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 791-833.
    11. Loayza,Norman V. & Sanghi,Apurva & Shaharuddin,Nurlina Binti & Wuester,Lucie Johanna, 2020. "Recovery from the Pandemic Crisis : Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Concerns," Research and Policy Briefs 152797, The World Bank.
    12. Kruttli, Mathias S. & Monin, Phillip J. & Petrasek, Lubomir & Watugala, Sumudu W., 2025. "LTCM Redux? Hedge fund Treasury trading, funding fragility, and risk constraints," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    13. Leonardo Burlamaqui & Ernani T. Torres Filho, 2020. "The COVID-19 Crisis: A Minskyan Approach to Mapping and Managing the (Western?) Financial Turmoil," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_968, Levy Economics Institute.
    14. Robert Czech & Shiyang Huang & Dong Lou & Tianyu Wang, 2021. "An unintended consequence of holding dollar assets," Bank of England working papers 953, Bank of England.
    15. Augustin, Patrick & Sokolovski, Valeri & Subrahmanyam, Marti G. & Tomio, Davide, 2022. "In sickness and in debt: The COVID-19 impact on sovereign credit risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1251-1274.
    16. Andreas Schrimpf & Hyun Song Shin & Vladyslav Sushko, 2020. "Leverage and margin spirals in fixed income markets during the Covid-19 crisis," BIS Bulletins 2, Bank for International Settlements.
    17. Valentin Haddad & Alan Moreira & Tyler Muir, 2021. "When Selling Becomes Viral: Disruptions in Debt Markets in the COVID-19 Crisis and the Fed’s Response [Funding value adjustments]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5309-5351.
    18. Jason Allen & Milena Wittwer, 2023. "Centralizing Over-the-Counter Markets?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(12), pages 3310-3351.
    19. Hermes, Felix & Schmeling, Maik & Schrimpf, Andreas, 2025. "The international dimension of repo: five new facts," Working Paper Series 3065, European Central Bank.
    20. Dastarac Hugues, 2021. "Convergence trading, arbitrage and systemic risk in the United States [Convergence trading, arbitrage et risque systémique aux États-Unis]," Bulletin de la Banque de France, Banque de France, issue 235.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bis:bisblt:21. 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: Martin Fessler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bisssch.html .

    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.