Central Bank Credibility and its Effect on Interest Rate with an Emphasis on Fiscal and Institutional Factors

This paper studies the effect of central bank credibility (CBC) on interest rate from the perspective of fiscal and institutional factors, using a credibility loss index. As some central banks are not successful in channeling the actual inflation towards the announced targets, it seems necessary to investigate the impact of central bank credibility on the economic variables and also analyze the fiscal and institutional determinants of central bank credibility. Therefore, using a backward-looking indicator that measures the central bank's performance as the basis for obtaining credibility, this study analyzes the impact of CBC on the interest rate, assuming credibility is endogenous for 17 developing countries during the period 1996-2019. The result indicates that increasing the level of credibility loss positively affects the level of interest rate. In other words, increasing the central bank's credibility or improving its performance reduces the level of interest rate. Since performance is a function of external fiscal and institutional factors, improving the quality of democracy in society and legal implementation of fiscal rules along with the formal adoption of inflation targeting framework not only limits the behavior of governments and establishes financial discipline, but also improves the central bank performance. This will convince economic agents that governments and central banks are committed to their promises.