سیاست بانک مرکزی بین هدف ثبات قیمت و ارتقای ثبات مالی

The paper aims to emphasize the role of the monetary policy and the central bank's position concerning the financial stability in the new context created by the global financial crisis, and given that it pursues the price stability, as the primary objective. The analysis highlights the need to review the position of the central bank in order to promote a more proactive stance to deal with financial stability, beyond the traditional framework of regulation and supervision, but there is a risk of emerging conflicts derived from the pursuance of the primary objective (the price stability) while maintaining financial stability.

Along with the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2007, the “Great Moderation” period, characterized by a low macroeconomic volatility and a non-inflationary economic growth worldwide, has ended, and has begun a new. stage of global transformation, for redefining the political and economic relations between countries, but also for restoring the priorities of the general policy to reduce the financial instability. On the one hand, the new macroeconomic framework underlines the importance of the clear and proper regulation, as the main condition for defense against the financial instability, and on the other hand, underlines the strengthened link between the financial stability and the macroeconomic policies, especially the monetary policy, to support it. Thus, it becomes obvious the increase of the Central Bank’s responsibility, with the monetary policy as an element of the macroeconomic policies’ mechanism. The complex processes of expansion, liberalization and globalization of financial flows developed in the recent decades increasingly deepened the financial system, producing a widening gap between the financial economy and the real one, while the relationship between the financial and monetary stability (price stability) had complicated. Changes of the financial regimes (liberalization of financial flows) in most countries have made the financial factors, especially those related to the “boom-bust” cycle of credit or asset prices, to be generators of the economic fluctuations. Changes of the monetary regime during the “great moderation” were directed instead towards achieving monetary stability by keeping inflation and returns low, assuming that in this way would avoid the potential unsustainable development of the economy and would ensure stability of the financial system. In fact, the strong development of the financial sector weakened the ability of the inflation to report anomalies in economic activity development, while the furtherance of the monetary stability during the “great moderation” besides the fact that did not supported the financial stability but affected her, actually fostering speculative bubbles, given that, in a confident and optimistic background for businesses (especially for banks) was encouraged greater risk taking. In this context, it is necessary to reconsider the role of the central bank in terms of its primary objective of price stability, in conjunction with the promotion of the financial stability. This problem began to be raised especially after the crisis started in 2008. Although the central banks were those that protected the economies, they failed to support the recommencement of the economic recovery. In this article we try to identify the new framework in which monetary policy can operate taking into account a reassessment of the role of the central bank given the increasing importance of the general objective of financial system stability, but also suspicions that central banks have allowed the appearance of conditions that led to the crisis. To better illustrate the research, the authors considered both a review of the literature on the relationship between financial and price stability, and a comparative analysis of how the major banks (European Central Bank - ECB the U.S. Federal Reserve - the Fed, and the Bank of England - BoE) relate to the issue of financial stability after the global financial crisis.

More and more central banks began to expand their responsibilities, assuming the role of stabilizing the financial system, turning somehow to the reason for which the first central banks have been established, namely for government financing during crisis (specifically, for war-funding). The conflict between the price stability and the financial stability is also reflected by the different time horizon for which they are designed. Monetary policy is usually set for a period of 2-3 years, which is consistent with the economic cycle, while the risks and imbalances in the financial system accumulate during a longer period, causing the so-called financial cycle, which can contain several economic cycles. A solution to this discrepancy could be widening the timescale for the price stability objective. Many central banks pursue, in addition to the price stability objective, the economic development, and therefore they take certain measures concerning the use of resources, which could lead to the failure of stabilizing the shortterm inflation and maintaining a sustainable resource use in the long-term. Taking into account the financial stability as a supplementary objective and if the economic and financial cycles go in different directions, then it could be generated conflicts between the stabilizing prices and the resource management, as short-term objectives, and financial stability, as long-term objective. One of the major challenges for central banking refers not only to the potential conflict between the price stability and the financial stability, but also to the broadening of the operational framework by actions performed by central banks toward the restoring of the financial system. If, theoretically, there is the concern that by expanding the central bank’s balance sheet, it will be affected its primary objective, the experience of the recent years shows that the real risk of such actions is the impairment of the central bank's independence, because an excessive expansion of the central bank’s responsibilities means a greater involvement in the political arena. For central banking, the financial stability remains of fundamental interest. The central banks should ensure a balance between maintaining the price stability, as its primary objective, and promoting the financial stability, which is a more general objective. The latter is found within the area of concerns of those institutions regarded as “safety net”. With globalization, it has become a prerequisite for promoting the financial stability that the central banks must collaborate with other institutions and financial authorities to exchange information on common interest for an effective action to prevent and to manage potential crises.