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US Monetary Policy and International Bond Markets

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Abstract

This paper uses high-frequency data to analyze the effects of US monetary policy--during the conventional and unconventional policy regimes--on foreign government bonds markets in advanced and emerging market economies. The results indicate that an expansionary US monetary policy steepens the foreign yield curve--denominated in local currency--during a conventional US monetary policy regime and flattens the foreign yield curve during an unconventional policy regime. The passthrough of unconventional US monetary policy to foreign bond yields is, on balance, comparable to that of conventional policy. In addition a conventional US monetary easing leads to a significant narrowing of the credit spreads on dollar-denominated sovereign bonds that are issued by countries with a speculative-grade sovereign credit rating. However, during the unconventional policy regime, yields on speculative-grade sovereign debt denominated in dollars move one-to-one with yields on comparable-maturity US Treasury securities.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Gilchrist & Vivian Z. Yue & Egon Zakrajšek, 2018. "US Monetary Policy and International Bond Markets," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2018-014, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2018-14
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2018.014
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Conventional and unconventional US monetary policy; Financial spillovers; Sovereign yields and credit spreads;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates
    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance

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