Monetary Policy Week in Review – 24 March 2012

The past week in monetary policy saw 8 central banks announcing monetary policy decisions.  Of those that changed interest rate levels, Mauritius cut its rate -50bps to 4.90%, and Ukraine cut -25bps to 7.50%, while Iceland increased +25bps to 5.00%.  Those that held interest rates unchanged were: Nigeria 12.00%, Egypt 9.25%, Thailand 3.00%, Taiwan 1.875%, and Colombia 5.25%.  On the required reserves front, Egypt cut its banks required reserve ratio by 200 basis points, Ukraine also eased reserve requirements, and the People’s Bank of China selectively eased reserve requirements for 396 branches of the Agricultural Bank of China.

Looking at the central bank calendar, the week ahead sees the central banks of Israel, Hungary, Turkey, and South Africa meeting to review monetary policy settings. The base case would be for no change among all of these emerging market central banks. Elsewhere next week features speeches from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, ECB president Mario Draghi, Bank of Canada Governor, Mark Carney, and the Bank of England puts out its quarterly bulletin.