May 2021: New VoxEU Column – The reversal interest rate: A new motive for countercyclical macroprudential policy

by Matthieu Darracq Pariès, Christoffer Kok, and Matthias Rottner

The prolonged period of negative interest rates in advanced economies has raised concerns that further monetary policy accommodation could produce contractionary effects. Using a non-linear macroeconomic model fitted to the euro area economy, this column demonstrates that the risk of hitting the ‘reversal interest rate’ depends on the capitalisation of the banking sector. Consequently, the possibility of the reversal rate creates a novel motive for macroprudential policy, such as a countercyclical capital buffer. The new motive emphasises the strategic complementarities between monetary and macroprudential policy.


Link:
The reversal interest rate: A new motive for countercyclical macroprudential policy