How Raising Interest Rates Can Cause Inflation and Currency Depreciation

Abstract

In this paper we derive a new model on exchange rate response to a lasting higher interest rate level. Contemporary models do not provide a convincing explanation for this relationship, but recent research suggests that models based on demand-pull effects to be somewhat confined to small funding cost increases. This would make cost-push effects more relevant when the interest rate differential (IRD) is larger and longer-lasting. The new model accounts for cost-push effects and suggests that a persistent higher IRD can evoke multiple responses, including currency depreciation, specialization, inflation, and wage drift. The model suggests that excessive long-lasting IRD can spark a chronic interaction between inflation and currency depreciation. Empirical data substantiate the prediction capability of the new model. We also demonstrate how the uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) principle is a special case, which can explain its empirical research anomalies, and when carry trade is a profitable investment strategy.