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The Quest for Price Stability in Central America and the Dominican Republic

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  • Luis Jácome
  • Eric Parrado

Abstract

Why hasn’t inflation converged to price stability in Central America and the Dominican Republic? Why is it currently still high by Latin American standards? This paper addresses these questions, and finds that despite the institutional strengthening of monetary policy, important flaws remain in most central banks, in particular the lack of a clear policy mandate and little political autonomy, which are hurting the consistency of policy implementation. Empirical analysis reveals that all central banks raise interest rates to curtail inflation, but only some of them make large enough increases to effectively tackle inflation pressures. It also shows that some central banks care simultaneously about exchange rate stability. The potential policy conflict arising from a dual central bank mandate and the unpredictable policy response is probably undermining market confidence in central banks’ commitment to price stability, thereby perpetuating an inflation bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Jácome & Eric Parrado, 2006. "The Quest for Price Stability in Central America and the Dominican Republic," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 390, Central Bank of Chile.
    • Handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:390
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    File URL: https://www.bcentral.cl/documents/33528/133326/DTBC_390.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pablo Mendieta Ossio, 2010. "The renaissance of Friedman hypothesis: nature of global financial crisis and consequences in a small open and highly dollarized economy," Revista de Análisis del BCB, Banco Central de Bolivia, vol. 13(1), pages 119-151, December.
    2. Julien Pinter, 2018. "Does Central Bank Financial Strength Really Matter for Inflation? The Key Role of the Fiscal Support," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 29(5), pages 911-952, November.
    3. Luis F. Cernadas & E. René Aldazosa, 2011. "Estimación de una función de reacción para la política monetaria en Bolivia," Monetaria, CEMLA, vol. 0(1), pages 1-36, enero-mar.
    4. Jalali-Naini , Ahmad R. & Hemmaty , Maryam, 2013. "Threshold Effects in the Monetary Policy Reaction Function: Evidence from Central Bank of Iran," Journal of Money and Economy, Monetary and Banking Research Institute, Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, vol. 8(1), pages 1-30, January.
    5. Åke Lönnberg & Mr. Peter Stella, 2008. "Issues in Central Bank Finance and Independence," IMF Working Papers 2008/037, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Ariadne M. Checo & Salomé Pradel & Francisco A. Ramírez, 2017. "The Effects of USA Monetary Policy on Central America and the Dominican Republic," Investigación Conjunta-Joint Research, in: Ángel Estrada García & Alberto Ortiz Bolaños (ed.), International Spillovers of Monetary Policy, edition 1, chapter 7, pages 189-222, Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos, CEMLA.
    7. Ms. Stephanie C Medina Cas & Mr. Alejandro Carrion-Menendez & Ms. Florencia Frantischek, 2011. "The Policy Interest-Rate Pass-Through in Central America," IMF Working Papers 2011/240, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Ake Lonnberg & Peter Stella, 2008. "Issues in central bank finance and independence," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2008-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

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