Managing foreign exchange inflows: An analysis of sterilisation in Pakistan

Abstract

The paper evaluates Pakistan's experience of managing capital inflows witnessed in recent years, particularly after the 9/11 events, which had implications for the conduct of monetary policy. The State Bank of Pakistan intervened in the foreign exchange market by purchasing excess supply, with the objective to contain volatility in exchange rate, and at the same time building up foreign exchange reserves. The market interventions led to surplus rupee liquidity, which had to be sterilised in order to ensure price stability. The paper estimated empirically the sterilisation coefficient by using OLS technique. Sterilisation coefficient for Pakistan during July2000-December2003 was -0.87, indicating that 87 percent of the increase in NFA was sterilised through selling of government securities.