2009•Lund University Publications Student Papers (Lund University)Open access

Are some EMU members more favoured by the ECB’s interest rate decisions than others?

Linnéa Byström-Hjalmarsson

Open full text 0 citations

Abstract

The ECB has the ultimate responsibility for the single monetary policy. The ECB’s goal is maintaining price stability over the medium term; this means ensuring inflation stays in the region of 2 percent. If some EMU members are more favoured by the ECB’s interest rate decisions then this would cause implicit problems and overall, the monetary union would face problems regarding structural divergences between member countries. These divergent problems would make each country differ from each other with regard to inflation and GDP growth. Thus the ECB has the difficult task of deciding a single interest rate that fits all member countries. Calculations based on interest rates versus forecasts on output gaps and inflation do illustrate a pattern that shows that some countries are more favoured by interest rate decisions than others. This poses a crucial question as to whether all countries benefit from membership in the monetary union and, by extrapolation, does the ECB as an institution have enough power to execute pivotal monetary politics?

Open-access reader

About this research paper

What this paper is about

The ECB has the ultimate responsibility for the single monetary policy. The ECB’s goal is maintaining price stability over the medium term; this means ensuring inflation stays in the region of 2 percent. If some EMU members are more favoured by the ECB’s interest rate decisions then this would cause implicit problems and overall, the monetary union would face problems regarding structural divergences between member countries. These divergent problems would make each country differ from each other with regard to inflation and GDP growth. Thus the ECB has the difficult task of deciding a single interest rate that fits all member countries. Calculations based on interest rates versus forecasts on output gaps and inflation do illustrate a pattern that shows that some countries are more favoured by interest rate decisions than others. This poses a crucial question as to whether all countries benefit from membership in the monetary union and, by extrapolation, does the ECB as an institution have enough power to execute pivotal monetary politics?

Why it matters

A significance statement is not available in the OpenAlex record.

Key contribution

A contribution statement is not available in the OpenAlex record.

Method / approach

Method details are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Main findings

Findings are not separately available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Limitations

Limitations are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Applications

Application details are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Available abstract

The ECB has the ultimate responsibility for the single monetary policy. The ECB’s goal is maintaining price stability over the medium term; this means ensuring inflation stays in the region of 2 percent. If some EMU members are more favoured by the ECB’s interest rate decisions then this would cause implicit problems and overall, the monetary union would face problems regarding structural divergences between member countries. These divergent problems would make each country differ from each other with regard to inflation and GDP growth. Thus the ECB has the difficult task of deciding a single interest rate that fits all member countries. Calculations based on interest rates versus forecasts on output gaps and inflation do illustrate a pattern that shows that some countries are more favoured by interest rate decisions than others. This poses a crucial question as to whether all countries benefit from membership in the monetary union and, by extrapolation, does the ECB as an institution have enough power to execute pivotal monetary politics?

Key concepts: Economics, Interest rate, Monetary policy, Inflation (cosmology), Price of stability, Monetary economics, Real interest rate, Economic and monetary union

Related papers

Back to paper searchBrowse research topicsOriginal source
Are some EMU members more favoured by the ECB’s interest rate decisions than others? — Research Paper | ScholarLens