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Navigating by r*: safe or hazardous?

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  • Claudio Borio

Abstract

The concept of the natural rate of interest, or r*, has risen to prominence in monetary policy following the Great Financial Crisis. No doubt a key reason for the concept's newfound prominence has been the further decline of real and nominal interest rates to new lows, which has further constrained monetary policy's room for manoeuvre. This lecture explores the extent to which the concept can be a useful guide to policy. It concludes that, depending on how it is employed, the concept has the potential of leading policy astray and of complicating the task of regaining the needed policy headroom. If so, within a credible policy regime, there is a premium on flexibility in the pursuit of tightly defined inflation targets – on tolerance for transitory, but possibly persistent, shortfalls of inflation from target.

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  • Claudio Borio, 2021. "Navigating by r*: safe or hazardous?," BIS Working Papers 982, Bank for International Settlements.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:biswps:982
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Oleksiy Kryvtsov & James (Jim) C. MacGee & Luis Uzeda, 2023. "The 2021–22 Surge in Inflation," Discussion Papers 2023-3, Bank of Canada.
    2. Jonung, Lars, 2022. "The Problems of Inflation Targeting Originate in the Monetary Theory of Knut Wicksell," Working Papers 2022:8, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    3. Mongelli, Francesco Paolo & Pointner, Wolfgang & van den End, Jan Willem, 2022. "The effects of climate change on the natural rate of interest: a critical survey," Working Paper Series 2744, European Central Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    natural interest rate; central banking; monetary policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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