The Signalling Effect of Monetary Policy Rate on Lending Rates in Ghana.

Lartey, Lawrencia (2018): The Signalling Effect of Monetary Policy Rate on Lending Rates in Ghana.

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine the pass through effect of the Central bank’s monetary policy rate on commercial banks’ lending rates. Specifically, the study sought to ascertain the short and long run relationship between these variables of interest. It employed monthly time series data spanning from 2002 to 2017 which was sourced mainly from the World Development Indicator (WDI) and Bank of Ghana (BOG). Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) was the estimation technique used for analyzing the data. Estimates from the Augmented Dicker- Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root test showed that the variables were all integrated of order one (1). The findings found that there is a positive relationship between average lending rates and Monetary Policy Rate (MPR). MPR was significant in both the long and short run and had a large marginal effect on lending rates compared to all the other variables. However, in the short run the speed of adjustment was relatively slow. This implied a more rigid downward adjustment of average lending rate to changes in all the variables. Money supply in the economy denoted by M2+ was negatively related to average lending rates. Treasury bill rate was the only variable which was negatively insignificant in the short run. Based on the above findings the study recommends appropriate measures to be implemented to assist in fully developing the financial markets.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Average Lending Rates, Monetary Policy Rate, Bank of Ghana
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E5 - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

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