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Exchange rate volatility is a stated concern for policymakers in many emerging market economies. This paper investigates whether exchange rate volatility impacts the commitment to inflation targeting monetary policy by analyzing thirteen emerging market economies and nine advanced economies from 2000 to 2016. Using a dynamic panel threshold regression model, the response of the domestic target interest rate to the inflation gap, output gap, and exchange rate condition is tested in scenarios of above‐threshold and below‐threshold exchange rate volatility. Both emerging and advanced economies adhere to their inflation targeting commitments when exchange rate volatility is below 1%, but are unable or unwilling to respond to deviations in the inflation gap when volatility is beyond this threshold value.

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Studying the determinants of exchange rates is important for understanding economic development, trade patterns, investment decisions and for recommending economic policies. Trade openness is one of the important factors that affect exchange rates. With increase in globalisation, economies around the world are more integrated through liberalised foreign trade policies

Article History KeywordsAsymmetric preferences Foreign exchange market Intervention Emerging markets Exchange rate volatility Optimal reaction function GMM. JEL Classification:E58; E61; F31; G15.Policymakers in emerging market economies intervene in currency markets to counter appreciation or depreciation pressure, while also responding to the degree of exchange rate volatility. This paper investigates whether the asymmetric response in terms of foreign exchange intervention depends on the degree of exchange rate volatility. Specifically, we estimate whether the response by policymakers to currency market conditions differs in above or below threshold levels of volatility. We use dynamic threshold panel analysis presented within an asymmetric policy reaction function to investigate the role of exchange rate volatility in foreign exchange intervention. We estimate the model using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) with monthly data for 23 emerging market economies from 2000 to 2016. We find that the asymmetric aversion to appreciation only holds under below-threshold volatility scenarios, and that the majority of the time, policymakers are simply leaning against exchange rate movements to ensure stable exchange rate conditions. The results confirm that exchange rate volatility impacts the response of policymakers to exchange rate conditions. Contribution/Originality: This study assesses how exchange rate volatility impacts foreign exchange policy decisions in emerging and developing economies. We provide evidence that prior literature, which did not consider volatility, missed an important policy concern for central banks in these economies when analyzing the existence of asymmetric preference in foreign exchange intervention.

The currency option price is a powerful tool used regularly to determine market expectations on volatility in currencies using the implied volatility measure. This research tests and analyzes whether similar inferences can be made regarding interest rate and inflation expectations. Using historical options data, we derive and analyze implied interest rates during non-inflation targeting (non-IT) and inflation targeting (IT) periods for Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. We compare the results to a control group of countries that had not yet adopted inflation targeting during the period under study: Germany, Japan and Switzerland. Our results show that options prices can provide insights on market expectations on interest rates, that the adoption of inflation targeting strengthens the relationship between market expectations and inflation, and that shocks in interest rates and inflation lead to higher implied interest rates. In determining the potential uses of implied interest rates derived from currency options prices, our goal is not to replace the Federal Funds futures or equivalent tools in advanced economies, rather to present the usefulness of currency options as a tool to provide information to policymakers in emerging market economies. Central banks, such as the Banco Central de Colombia and Banco de Mexico, have been using currency options as tools for foreign exchange intervention or reserve accumulation/decumulation since the early 2000’s, and options markets in these economies have grown rapidly since then. Therefore, establishing the usefulness of implied interest rate measures derived from currency options prices may provide insights to policymakers and practitioners alike.