Investigating the Role of Credit and Credibility of Monetary Policymaker on Financial Stability in the Iranian Economy

In this study, to measure financial instability and assess the probability of a financial crisis, we make a composite index which is a weighted average of Non-Performing Loans ratio, and volatilities in the stock price index by using Iranian quarterly time series for the periods of 79q1 until 93q4. Then, in order to investigate the affecting factors on Iran’s Financial Instability, a basic model is estimated which, the financial instability index is influenced by the gap of credit growth rate, output gap, the index of central bank credibility, inflation, and the growth rate of public sector debt in the banking system. The results indicate that an increase in the gap of credit growth reduces the Financial Instability. Furthermore, the output gap has a negative and significant effect on the index of Financial Instability. In addition, a higher credibility of the central bank in the commitment to the targeted inflation leads to increase in Financial Stability. As expected, an increase in inflation and public sector debt in the banking system raises the instability of the economy. moreover, to evaluate the robustness of the results, we add the square of the gap of growth rate credit to the model as an explanatory variable. The results indicate that growth rate credit has a non-linearity relationship with Financial Stability, which induces the existence of an optimal level of credit growth rate. So the excessive credits can increase vulnerability and economic instability.