Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets: Indonesia s s Case Hartadi A. Sarwono, Deputy Governor Paper presented at The OECD-CCBS CCBS Seminar on Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets,, Paris, 28 February 2007.
Outline: 2 A Brief History of Indonesia s Monetary Policy Framework The Implementation of Formal Inflation Targeting Framework Limitation of Interest Rate Response and the Need for Coordination with the Government Doing Monetary Policy in an Open Capital Account Some Lessons to be Learned Where to go?
A Brief History of Indonesia s Monetary Policy Framework 3 Central Bank Act in 1999: Focus on maintaining Rupiah stability Goal and instrument independent Institutionally independent Start announcing inflation target in 2000 Base Money Target under IMF program Inflation fell down, but hardly achieve target Year CPI Target Economic growth assumption Base money growth target Actual base money growth Actual CPI inflation 2000 5-7% 3-4% 8.3% 23.4% 9.53% 2001 6-8.5% 5.0% 11-12% 18.3% 12.53% 2002 9-10% 3.5-4.0% 14-15% 9.3% 10.03% 2003 8-10% 3.5-4.0% 13% 14.25% 5.06%
A Brief History of Indonesia s Monetary Policy Framework 4 Central Bank Act amended in 2004: Government set the inflation target Instrument independent (% Y-o-Y) 20 18 CPI inflation 16 14 Inflation (CPI) target: Announced in 2004: 2005 6% +1% 2006 5.5% +1% 2007 5% +1% 12 10 8 6 inflation target core inflation Revised in 2005 (due to oil shock): 4 2 0 2006 8% +1% 2007 6% +1% Mar Jun Sep Des Mar Jun Sep Des Mar Jun Sep Des Mar Jun Sep Dec 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 5% +1%
The Implementation of Formal Inflation Targeting Framework 5 Announced in July 2005: The use of interest rate, called BI Rate, as the policy reference rate Forward looking monetary policy decision-making Enhancing transparent communication strategy Improving policy coordination with the Government. 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 BI Rate Inflation Interest rate can quickly response to any pressure of inflation and easier to be understood (thus influence expectation) Jul-05 Aug-05 Sep-05 Oct-05 Nov-05 Dec-05 Jan-06 Feb-06 Mar-06 Apr-06 May-06 Jun-06 Jul-06 Aug-06 Sep-06 Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07
Doing Monetary Policy in an Open Capital Account 6 A complicated policy implication of a small-open economy is the need to deal with the capital flows uncertainty while maintaining the monetary independence and balancing the pressure on exchange rate. % Rp/USD 20 11000 US$ million 20,000 15,000 10,000 18 16 10500 5,000 0 (5,000) 14 12 10000 (10,000) 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006* Current account Cap & Fin account Overall Balance 10 8 6 9500 9000 US$ billion 50 45 40 35 30 25 6.0 6.6 7.1 5.6 4.3 4.6 Months 8.0 7.0 6.0 5.0 4.0 4 Jul-05 Aug-05 Sep-05 Oct-05 Nov-05 Dec-05 Jan-06 Feb-06 Mar-06 Apr-06 May-06 Jun-06 Jul-06 Aug-06 Sep-06 BI Rate (LHS) Inflation (LHS) IDR/USD (RHS) Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 8500 20 28 32 36 36 35 43 15 10 5 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 FX reserves Months of import and official debt repayment (RHS)
Limitation of Interest Rate Response 7 Source of Inflation: 3.13, share 47.4% 2006 CPI Inflation = 6,6% Volatile inflation associated with supply shock and administered prices. 0.45, share 6.8% -1.54, share -23.3% -0.11, share -1.7% 4.68, share 70.8% Excpect. Inflation Output Gap Ex.Rate Administered Prices Volatile Food With long history of relatively high inflation, it can easily be transmitted to people s expectation of inflation. Interest rate alone can not be used to combat inflation.
Limitation of Interest Rate Response 8 Interest rate alone can not be used to combat inflation. A concerted effort, both in demand and supply side, is needed to combat Indonesia s high and stubborn inflation. Bank Indonesia and the Government established The Inflation Management Team in 2004. The team introduced an integrated policy roadmap: monetary policies to administer aggregate demand and stabilize the exchange rate; fiscal policies to ease demand by maintaining fiscal sustainability and to coordinate direct policies concerning administered prices; sectoral policies to fostering supply (production) and ensuring the continual distribution of goods and services.
Some Lessons to be Learned 9 ITF has served well in formulating consistent monetary policy and in anchoring public s inflation expectation. A rapid adjustment of Indonesian economy should take into serious consideration in formulating monetary policy. Here, the supply side policy to combat inflation is also needed. Market is now more sensitive and its punishment to any bad policy seems more severe than before. Fluctuations in capital flows could happen in a massive and instantaneous way if a policy seen to have a low level of credibility. Credibility matters! Increasing policy discipline, transparency and communication will lessen inflation persistence and the cost of disinflation, i.e. striking the balance between disinflation and economic recovery.
Where to go? 10 Improving the implementation of ITF, within the wider structure of macroeconomic policy, is a strategic step that will continually be taken to maintain market confidence on macroeconomic stability and overall financial system stability. To support the financial market development and to improve monetary policy effectiveness, improving the operational structure of monetary policy and deepening the domestic financial sector is already in our agenda. A number of issues related to capital flows, exchange rates and the interest rate response will be placed within the current liberal capital account regime and a floating exchange rate system. In this context, policies that provide incentives for longterm capital flows should be prioritized over policies that punish short-term capital flows.