New Challenges after the Crisis: A Monetary Policy Perspective

Major economic and financial crises usually had an impact on central banks and their policies. Is this the case with the recent crisis? To answer this question several issues concerning both the strategic and operational levels of monetary management are discussed. First, we outline the monetary policy consensus before the crisis and address its weaknesses. Second, we shortly describe monetary developments during the crisis. Third, we investigate the following problems: (i) recent changes in economic thinking on monetary policy and financial markets, (ii) the issue of exit strategies from the crisis monetary management, and (iii) the question of a more durable impact of the crisis on monetary policy conduct. In relation to the last problem it is stressed that monetary authorities must fully recognize all the implications resulting from two facts: that their activities are related to credit-monetary systems, in which bank credit is the ultimate source of money, and that of inherent instability of financial markets. Consequently, central banks must pay more attention to financial stability issues. On the one hand, this implies a return to the old idea of 'leaning against the wind' as concerns credit expansion and asset price increases, while on the other, at the operational level, it implies that proper macroprudential regulatory instruments must be developed and perfected