Monetary policy transmission in Sri Lanka
Publication Name
Applied Economics
Abstract
Sri Lanka’s monetary policy has evolved differently during and after a three-decade-long ethnic conflict. This paper empirically investigates effects of monetary policy shocks on Sri Lankan economy with particular focus on the strength of credit and exchange rate channels using a VAR model for 2003–2019 period. We find that: (i) monetary policy shocks have a significant and persistent impact on key macroeconomic variables even though several puzzling results emerge; (ii) the effects of monetary policy shocks are significant and more persistent in the post-conflict period than in the conflict period; (iii) a tight monetary policy effectively contains inflation in the post-conflict period; and (iv) interest rate and exchange rate channels play a dominant role while the credit channel responds with some lags in the post-conflict period.
Open Access Status
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