Interest Rate Determination in Lebanon

By Tushar Poddar, Mangal Goswami, Juan Sole, Victor Echévarria Icaza

April 1, 2006

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Tushar Poddar, Mangal Goswami, Juan Sole, and Victor Echévarria Icaza. Interest Rate Determination in Lebanon, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2006) accessed December 26, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper seeks to understand how interest rates are formed in Lebanon, by focusing on the pass-through from benchmark rates, prevailing liquidity conditions, and the main characteristics of the Lebanese economy, notably its open capital account, fixed exchange rate, high government borrowing requirement, large public debt, and high degree of deposit dollarization. We find that international interest rates are an important element in the determination of interest rates in Lebanon. In particular, the pass-through of global benchmark rates to interest rates on sovereign bonds is about 70 percent. The less-than-complete pass-through could be attributed to a home-bias effect reflecting a relatively stable and dedicated investor base. The study also shows that interest rates in Lebanon are affected by liquidity conditions as well as perceived sovereign risk.

Subject: Central banks, Deposit rates, Exchange rate risk, Financial regulation and supervision, Financial services, Interbank rates, International reserves, Monetary base, Money

Keywords: Asset, Benchmark rate, Deposit rates, Eurobond rate, Exchange rate risk, FCD rate, Global, Interbank rates, Interest rate, Interest rate arbitrage, Interest rates, International reserves, Lebanese pound, Lebanon, Monetary base, Rate of return, Sovereign risk, T-bill rate, WP, Yield

Publication Details

Pages:

22
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2006/094
Stock No:

WPIEA2006094
ISBN:

9781451863543
ISSN:

1018-5941

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