موضوعات
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
This study investigates the dynamic interrelationships among key macroeconomic variables in Iran—namely the exchange rate, inflation, government budget deficit, and liquidity—using the Time-Varying Parameter Threshold Vector Autoregression method, based on monthly data from March 2006 to August 2023. The findings reveal a complex and time-varying structure of connectedness among these variables, influenced significantly by political and external shocks such as sanctions. The results indicate that the exchange rate and liquidity act as the main net transmitters of volatility, while inflation and the budget deficit are primarily net receivers. The TCI averages around 23%, with over 70% of the interdependence attributed to external and non-economic factors. Threshold analysis shows that when the growth rate of macroeconomic variables remains below 24% annually (2% monthly), the exchange rate strongly affects inflation, while no significant interaction is observed among the other variables. In contrast, during negative growth rates (up to -3% monthly), the exchange rate has a dominant effect on both inflation and, to a lesser extent, the budget deficit and liquidity. Moreover, periods of intensified sanctions (2012–2016, 2018–2019) coincide with increased connectedness, largely due to inflationary expectations, reduced foreign currency supply, and expansionary fiscal policies such as debt issuance. These findings underscore the pivotal role of the exchange rate in Iran’s macroeconomic network. For effective macroeconomic management, it is crucial to implement a managed floating exchange rate regime and maintain macro variable growth below critical thresholds. Otherwise, political economy dynamics and expectations may override monetary and fiscal policy effectiveness
Aim and Introduction
One of the most important issues in Iran's economy is related to managing the exchange rate, inflation and budget deficit. During tightening of the sanctions, the oil revenues are limited which potentially leads to an increase in the budget deficit as well as a decrease in the currency supply which accelerates the exchange rate. On the other hand, with the increase in the budget deficit, the probability of borrowing from the banking system and also the issuance of bonds increases, which in turn rise the monetary base and liquidity. In addition, inflationary expectations also increase, which can be effective in improving assets prices. With an increase in inflation, based on the inflation-currency spiral, there is a possibility of a grow in exchange rate in order to maintain the competitiveness of domestic production. This can accelerate the price of imported commodities and cause domestic inflation again. With the increase in inflation and households spending, nominal wages will have a higher growth compared to normal conditions in order to maintain minimum purchasing power, which can again face the government with limited resources and more borrowing to meet current expenses. From the monetarists’ point of view and the classical economics, in general, the main stimulator in increasing inflation is the growth of money and liquidity. However, from the post-Keynesian economists’ point of view, inflation increases the demand of money and subsequently liquidity. On the other hand, with an increase in the exchange rate, the government's expenses usually increase more than its income, which can lead to an increase in the government's budget deficit. Also, considering the existence of a monopoly in currency supply by the central bank, the hypothesis of using currency exchange revenues (the difference between free and budget-approved currency) will be applicable and this issue can raise the impact of the budget deficit on the exchange rate. Therefore, there has always been a serious challenge among economists as well as macroeconomic decision-makers about the connectedness between macroeconomic variables. What is the main driver of the network between macro variables? Is there a different way of communication in different thresholds of their growth rate? These cases show that it is very important to examine the time-varying interrelationships between these macroeconomic variables.
Accordingly, there is a complex connection between exchange rate, inflation, budget deficit and liquidity, which can be varied in different years. Therefore, in this research, using the TVP-TVAR technique, the time-varying connectedness across exchange rate, inflation, budget deficit and liquidity is examined during March, 2006 to August, 2023.
Methodology
In the current research, the relationship between exchange rate fluctuations, inflation, government budget deficit and liquidity based on monthly data using the TVP-TVAR technique is investigated. It should be noted that all the required information is extracted from the economic indicators of the central bank, and the government's budget deficit data from 2017 onward are extracted from Iran's Program and Budget Organization.
Findings
The results show that exchange rate and liquidity are, respectively, the largest net transmitter of volatilities in the network. Moreover, inflation rate and government budget deficit, respectively, are the largest net receivers of shocks from network. On average, the TCI is 23%, and more than 70% of this interrelationship between variables is explained by other factors such as political ones. Moreover, if the variables underestimated grow up to 36% annually (3% monthly), the connection between them will be cut off. In the conditions of decreasing the growth rate of variables up to -3% per month, the exchange rate has played a dominant role and its volatilities are transferred more strongly to inflation rate and less strongly to the budget deficit and liquidity.
If the growth rate of the variables is up to 24% annually (threshold of +2% monthly growth rate), the exchange rate volatilities are transferred to inflation and no interconnectedness between other variables is observed.
Discussion and Conclusion
Our results show that, on average, the total connectedness index from 2012 to 2016 has been upward, which is caused by the tightening of sanctions and the increase in inflationary expectations, psychological factors and emotions. Moreover, the connectedness between them is increased in 2018 and 2019, which is related to the intensification of sanctions and the reduction of currency supply and the increase in inflation and budget deficit and subsequently the increase in the issuance of debt securities in the capital market in order to manage the budget deficit and as a result increase liquidity. The results show that exchange rate is a main net transmitter of volatilities in most years and the inflation rate is a main net receiver of volatilities in many years. From 2016 onwards, the budget deficit is the net receiver of shocks from network in most periods, except for one period in 2019. It is interesting to note that in 2019, with the increase in the budget deficit and the issuance of debt securities, the budget deficit is transmitter, liquidity is receiver and inflation is more receiver variable than liquidity in the network. Totally, the results show that exchange rate is the major net transmitter of shocks to other macro variables.
Moreover, based on the results of the sensitivity analysis and thresholds effect, if the growth rate of variables is up to 24% annually (threshold of +2% monthly growth rate), the exchange rate fluctuations will be transferred to inflation and no connection between other components is observed. This shows that the macroeconomic management of the economy is very sensitive to the growth rate of the thresholds of the macroeconomic components, and before the political economy and also the factors of expectations and emotions dominated the economy, the macroeconomic management, especially the exchange rate, is required. Otherwise, it is impossible to manage the investigated variables with monetary and fiscal policies. Therefore, the managed floating exchange rate should be taken into consideration and if the goal is to manage the network using macroeconomic theories, the variables should not be allowed to increase by more than 24% annual growth. Other factors such as the political economy, and especially inflationary expectations will get the dominant role in the economy
کلیدواژهها English
