Growing Central Bank Challenges in the World and Japan: Low Inflation, Monetary Policy, and Digital Currency

Growing Central Bank Challenges in the World and Japan offers insights for central banks looking to tackle the most pressing challenges under the global spotlight, starting with low inflation and its related impacts on unconventional monetary policy and policy coordination, including fiscal stimulus. It also provides important insights into issues related to central bank money, private money, the emergence of crypto assets, and the prospect of central bank digital currency.

Part I focuses on examining the persistently low inflation in advanced economies and reviews various unconventional monetary easing tools. It summarizes recent discussions on new monetary policy frameworks that could become alternatives to existing flexible inflation targeting, such as average inflation targeting and price-level targeting, as well as policy coordination, including helicopter money and modern monetary theory.

Part II sheds light on issues related to money, crypto assets, and central bank digital currency in advanced and emerging economies. It highlights the global rise in cash in circulation and gives an overview of the recent movements in private money, including bank deposits and e-money payment tools. It also examines the latest developments in crypto assets, including various types of “stablecoins” and Facebook’s Libra, reviews central bank digital currency proposals, and discusses the recent views expressed by regulatory authorities while incorporating new perspectives based on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.