Sri Lanka Selected Issues

Our results show that (i) interest rate channel (money view) has the strongest Granger effect on output with 0.6 percent decrease in output after the second quarter and a cumulative 0.5 percent decline within a 3 year period in response to innovations in the policy rate; (ii) the contribution from t...

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Bibliographic Details
Corporate Author: International Monetary Fund Asia and Pacific Dept
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2014
Series:IMF Staff Country Reports
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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245 0 0 |a Sri Lanka  |b Selected Issues 
260 |a Washington, D.C.  |b International Monetary Fund  |c 2014 
300 |a 45 pages 
651 4 |a Sri Lanka 
653 |a Money market 
653 |a Interest rates 
653 |a Credit 
653 |a Public debt 
653 |a Finance 
653 |a Public finance & taxation 
653 |a Monetary economics 
653 |a Financial services 
653 |a Debt Management 
653 |a Debts, Public 
653 |a Fiscal Policy 
653 |a Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General 
653 |a Debt 
653 |a Exports and Imports 
653 |a Fiscal policy 
653 |a General Financial Markets: General (includes Measurement and Data) 
653 |a Deposit rates 
653 |a Sovereign Debt 
653 |a Repo rates 
653 |a Financial markets 
653 |a Banks and Banking 
653 |a Money markets 
653 |a Bank credit 
653 |a Macroeconomics 
653 |a Banking 
653 |a Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects 
653 |a Public Finance 
653 |a Money and Monetary Policy 
653 |a Finance: General 
653 |a Central bank policy rate 
710 2 |a International Monetary Fund  |b Asia and Pacific Dept 
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490 0 |a IMF Staff Country Reports 
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520 |a  Our results show that (i) interest rate channel (money view) has the strongest Granger effect on output with 0.6 percent decrease in output after the second quarter and a cumulative 0.5 percent decline within a 3 year period in response to innovations in the policy rate; (ii) the contribution from the bank lending channel is statistically significant (adding another 0.2 percentage points to the baseline effect of policy rates) in affecting both output and prices but with a lag of about 5 quarters for output and longer for prices; (iii) the exchange rate and asset price channels are ineffective and do not have Granger effects on either output or prices. The second chapter takes a fresh look at the public debt reduction strategy.  
520 |a The chapter documents that Sri Lanka’s public debt is one of the highest among the emerging economies, particularly when measured against the relatively low revenues, and suggests that the authorities target its gradual reduction to 50 percent of GDP, relying mainly on revenue measures. This target is more ambitious than the authorities’ medium-term objective of reducing the debt ratio to 60 percent of GDP, but it is considered by staff as prudent 
520 |a EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The first chapter on monetary policy transmission examines the channels through which innovations to policy variables—policy rate or monetary aggregates—affect such macroeconomic variables as output and inflation in Sri Lanka. The effectiveness of monetary policy instruments is judged through the prism of conventional policy channels (money/interest rate, bank lending, exchange rate, asset price channels) in VAR models, and the timing and magnitude of these effects are assessed using impulse response functions, and through the pass-through coefficients from policy to money market and lending rates.  
520 |a It asks two questions: (i) what has been driving the increase and subsequent decline in Sri Lanka’s public debt? (ii) Is Sri Lanka’s public debt too high, and if yes, how much, how fast and how should it be reduced? The chapter finds that, until recently, favorable interest rate-growth differential reflecting the combination of relatively high real GDP growth and low real interest rates on public debt has worked to reduce the debt ratio, even as primary deficits and occasional currency depreciation pushed the ratio in the opposite direction. More recently, however, the average borrowing costs began to increase, reflecting the reduced role of concessional financing and increased resort to market borrowing. Thus, debt reduction became more dependent on real growth and stronger primary balance, and this trend is likely to continue.