IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2015-096.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What Drives Interest Rate Spreads in Pacific Island Countries? An Empirical Investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Fazurin Jamaludin
  • Mr. Vladimir Klyuev
  • Anuk Serechetapongse

Abstract

Growth has been sluggish in Pacific island countries (PICs). High cost of credit is likely one of the reasons. While the small scale, geographic dispersion, and vulnerability to shocks increase the cost and risk of credit in this country group, there is considerable variability in interest rate spreads both across countries and over time. This paper examines the determinants of lending rates and interest rate spreads in a panel of six PICs, extending the literature that was largely descriptive in nature or focused on a single country. Our results are in line with economic theory. We find that the size of the economy is negatively correlated with spreads, confirming the importance of scale. Inflation appears to have only marginal impact on spreads. High loan loss provisions and nonperforming loans increase the cost of credit. So does banking system concentration. Higher institutional quality is associated with lower spreads.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Fazurin Jamaludin & Mr. Vladimir Klyuev & Anuk Serechetapongse, 2015. "What Drives Interest Rate Spreads in Pacific Island Countries? An Empirical Investigation," IMF Working Papers 2015/096, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2015/096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=42893
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Demirguc, Asli & Huizinga, Harry, 1999. "Determinants of Commercial Bank Interest Margins and Profitability: Some International Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 379-408, May.
    2. Jeremy Greenwood & Juan Sanchez & Cheng Wang, 2013. "Quantifying the Impact of Financial Development on Economic Development," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 194-215, January.
    3. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, 2013. "Doing Business 2014 : Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16204.
    4. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    5. Mr. Yiqun Wu & Ms. Patrizia Tumbarello & Niamh Sheridan, 2012. "Global and Regional Spillovers to Pacific Island Countries," IMF Working Papers 2012/154, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Mr. Joe Crowley, 2007. "Interest Rate Spreads in English-Speaking African Countries," IMF Working Papers 2007/101, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Winston Moore & Roland Craigwell, 2002. "Market Power and Interest Rate Spreads in the Caribbean," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 391-405.
    8. Mrs. Ruby Randall, 1998. "Interest Rate Spreads in the Eastern Caribbean," IMF Working Papers 1998/059, International Monetary Fund.
    9. David Tennant & Abiodun Folawewo, 2009. "Macroeconomic and market determinants of interest rate spreads in low- and middle-income countries," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 489-507.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hossain, Monzur, 2012. "Financial reforms and persistently high bank interest spreads in Bangladesh: Pitfalls in institutional development?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 395-408.
    2. Koffie Ben Nassar & Edder Martinez & Anabel Pineda, 2014. "Determinants of Banks' Net Interest Margins in Honduras," IMF Working Papers 2014/163, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Ms. Laura Valderrama & Mr. Wendell A. Samuel, 2006. "The Monetary Policy Regime and Banking Spreads in Barbados," IMF Working Papers 2006/211, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Mujeri, Mustafa K & Younus, Sayera, 2009. "An Analysis of Interest Rate Spread in the Banking Sector in Bangladesh," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 32(4), pages 1-34, December.
    5. David Tennant & Abiodun Folawewo, 2009. "Macroeconomic and market determinants of interest rate spreads in low- and middle-income countries," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 489-507.
    6. Murad Khan & Abdul Jalil, 2020. "Determinants of Interest Margin in Pakistan: A Panel Data Analysis," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-14, March.
    7. Cecilia Maigua & Gekara Mouni, 2016. "Influence of Interest Rates Determinants on the Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 121-133, April.
    8. Mr. Ephraim W. Chirwa & Mr. Montfort Mlachila, 2002. "Financial Reforms and Interest Rate Spreads in the Commercial Banking System in Malawi," IMF Working Papers 2002/006, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Constanza Martínez Ventura, 2005. "Una revisión empírica sobre los determinantes del margen de intermediación en Colombia, 1989-2003," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 23(48), pages 118-183, Junio.
    10. Serigne Bassirou Lo & Lassana Cissokho, 2023. "Financial development, institutions and industrialization in sub‐Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 152-164, June.
    11. Catalán-Herrera, Juan & Arriaza, Juan Carlos & Alvarado, Ricardo, 2019. "Is the financial accelerator story, empirically relevant for the determinants of the interest rate spread?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 37-47.
    12. Oleg Badunenko & Diego Romero‐Ávila, 2013. "Financial Development And The Sources Of Growth And Convergence," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54(2), pages 629-663, May.
    13. Changjun Zheng & Mohammed Mizanur Rahman & Munni Begum & Badar Nadeem Ashraf, 2017. "Capital Regulation, the Cost of Financial Intermediation and Bank Profitability: Evidence from Bangladesh," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-24, April.
    14. Uras, Burak R., 2019. "Unbundling Financial Imperfections: Lending Frictions Vs. Trading Frictions," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(4), pages 1401-1441, June.
    15. Viola Tanto, 2021. "The International Company and Tax Avoidance," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 2, May - Aug.
    16. Bouzgarrou, Houssam & Jouida, Sameh & Louhichi, Waël, 2018. "Bank profitability during and before the financial crisis: Domestic versus foreign banks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 26-39.
    17. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2017. "The Causes and Costs of Misallocation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 151-174, Summer.
    18. Maxwell Sandada & Agness Kanhukamwe, 2016. "The study sought to analyse the factors that lead to rising credit risk in the Zimbabwean banking sector," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 12(1), pages 80-94, February.
    19. George Owusu-Antwi & Rachna Banerjee & James Antwi, 2017. "Interest Rate Spread on Bank Profitability: The Case of Ghanaian Banks," Journal of Accounting, Business and Finance Research, Scientific Publishing Institute, vol. 1(1), pages 34-45.
    20. Mahmoud Haddad & Sam Hakim, 2015. "Can Banks Lead the Economic Recovery of the Arab Spring?," Working Papers 965, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2015.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2015/096. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.