The Impacts of Interest Rate and Exchange Rate Volatilities on the Demand for Money in Developing Economies

Abstract

Volatilities in the interest rate and the exchange rate cause instability in money demand functions. This study investigates the effect of interest and exchange rates volatilities on money demand in developing countries using time series data of four African countries namely, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Nigeria and Uganda. The model used is a conventional log linear money demand function, with money demand specified as a function of income, interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate, interest rate volatility and exchange rate volatility. The results show that on the whole the interest rate and exchange rate volatilities do not have significant effects on money demand in developing countries. However, the money demand functions of these economies prove unstable. These findings imply that the monetary authorities should resort to inflation targeting monetary policy and employ the interest rate as the policy instrument.