Trade finance, particularly in the form of short-term letters of credit has received favourable capital treatment new Basel III rules. However, concerns have been expressed over the potential negative "unintended consequences" of the newly created leverage ratio for trade. This paper offers a relatively simple model approach showing the conditions under which the 100% leverage tax on assets such as letters of credit would reduce their natural attractiveness relative to higher-risk ones, which stand in the balance sheet of banks. The decision by the Basel Committee in early 2014 weakening the leverage ratio on trade instruments seems to support the analytical framework developed in this paper. JEL-Code: E440, F130, F340, F360, O190, G210, G320.
The nature of the private sector’s information changes the optimal conduct of monetary policy. When firms observe their individual demand and use it as a signal of real shocks, the optimal policy consists in maximising the information content of that signal. When real shocks are deflationary (like labour supply shocks), the optimal policy is countercyclical and magnifies price movements, which contrasts with the exogenous information case, where optimal monetary policy is procyclical and stabilises prices. When the central bank communicates its information to the public, this policy is still optimal if firms pay limited attention to central bank announcements.
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