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What Does the Yield Curve Tell Us about Exchange Rate Predictability?

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  • Yu-chin Chen

    (University of Washington and Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research)

  • Kwok Ping Tsang

    (Virginia Tech and Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research)

Abstract

This paper uses information contained in the cross-country yield curves to test the asset-pricing approach to exchange rate determination, which models the nominal exchange rate as the discounted present value of its expected future fundamentals. Since the term structure of interest rates embodies information about future economic activity such as GDP growth and inflation, we extract the Nelson-Siegel (1987) factors of relative level, slope, and curvature from cross-country yield differences to proxy expected movements in future exchange rate fundamentals. Using monthly data between 1985-2005 for the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and the US, we show that the yield curve factors predict bilateral exchange rate movements and excess currency returns one month to two years ahead. They also outperform the random walk in forecasting short-term exchange rate returns out of sample. Our findings have intuitive economic interpretations and offer an explanation to the uncovered interest parity puzzle.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu-chin Chen & Kwok Ping Tsang, 2010. "What Does the Yield Curve Tell Us about Exchange Rate Predictability?," Working Papers 292010, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:hkm:wpaper:292010
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exchange Rate Forecasting; Term Structure of Interest Rates; Uncovered Interest Parity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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