The Causes Of Crisis Currency Instabilities

By Lela Perkins


There have been numerous cases of investors being caught off guard since the early 1990s, which leads to capital flight and runs on currencies. One may wonder what makes international financiers and currencies investors respond and act this way. They may go by their gut instinct or evaluate the minutia of an economy. Here is a look at crisis currency instabilities and what are its causes.

The main cause of currencies crisis is a decline in the value of a certain country's currency. Such a decline in value negatively affects an economy by causing instability within exchange rates meaning that units of those currencies do not buy as much as it used to in others. Simply put, such a crisis occurs as an interaction between investor expectations and what such expectations lead to.

When a potential crisis is on the verge of happening, central banks in affixed exchange rate economy can try to maintain the current rate by tapping into the country's foreign reserves, or by letting the exchange rate to undergo fluctuations. Investors may wonder how eating into foreign reserves may offer a solution. When the markets expect devaluation, offsetting the pressure set on the currencies can only be done by an increment in the interest rates.

To increase these rate, the money supply has to be shrunk by the central bank, which will in turn increase demand for currencies. It can be done through selling foreign reserves to form a capital outflow. When the central bank sells a part of its foreign reserves, payments received are in form of the domestic currencies that it will hold out of circulation as assets.

Dipping of the exchange rate cant go on forever, den to declines of foreign reserves as well as political or economic factors like low levels of employment. Currencies devaluations by raising fixed exchange rates causes domestic goods to be sold cheaply than foreign products.

In turn, output will be increased through boosting the demand for workers. In the short run, devaluation can raise interest rates that must be offset by central banks through a raise in foreign reserves and money supply.

Unfortunately for banks but good for citizens, investors know very well that a devaluation strategy can be used, thus building it to their expectations. If a devaluation of the currencies by the central bank is expected by the market, which would in turn increase the exchange rate, the possibility of a foreign reserves boost by an increase in aggregate demand may fail to be realized. Instead, the central bank must shrink the money supply by utilize its reserves, which will increase the domestic interest rate.

Should the confidence the investors have in the economy stability be eroded, they will try capital flight. This involves taking their money out of the country. When investors sell their domestic-currency denominated investments, they are converted into foreign currencies. This worsens the exchange rates. However, to predict when a country will experience crisis currency instability involves quite a complex set of variables.




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