Understanding the Impact of Monetary Policies on Currency Fluctuations

Monetary policies are implemented by central banks through adjustments in interest rates and managing inflation. These policies are the basic reinforcements that help set the tone and fate of a given country’s economy and in so doing, its currency. In the Forex trading domain, traders keep an eye on such policies since they exert both, an instantaneous and long-standing impacts on the currency pairs.

Among the most frequently applied techniques of monetary policy, attention should be paid to the variations in interest rates. Interests rates are those that central banks used in order to regulate inflation and sometimes to boost the economy. When a central bank increases the interest rates, it also supports the nation’s currency. Higher rates are also popular for the attractions of foreign investors because they desire increased yield on their capital. It also increases the demand for a country’s currencies to go higher, which makes a currency valued on the Forex market. Therefore, when central banks thus seek to implement low-interest rates, it is possible to end up with the currency losing the appeal meant for investors and, therefore, devalue.

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Monetary control of inflation is another well-known policy measure. Monetary authorities, with the prime aim of controlling inflation, set a particular inflation rate. If inflation gets out of hand, the central banks are likely to increase the interest rates in turn slowing down the economy. Such actions are and can impact on the currency markets as traders wait for the central bank’s actions and reposition themselves subsequently. On the other hand, if the inflation rate goes low the central banks might reduce interest rate or even resort to conducting quantitative easing to increase the flow of money in the economy; this will reduce the value of the currency.

Actions in monetary policy are not always easily foreseen, which means that the Forex trading becomes a little risky and this is a result of volatility. For instance, the US Federal funds rate may be increased to manage inflation as it affects the US while the European Central Bank might prefer to keep low rates in a bid to stimulate the Euro area economy. Such cross tensions in monetary policies are likely to result in risks for traders who seek to speculate in the difference between currencies. But it also implies that Forex traders can never relax to osmosis into the financial market and more importantly, central bank decisions.

In other words, imposing the monetary policy impact on the fluctuations of the currencies does not solely depend on internal factors alone. Also, politico- economic factors, global recession or war, trade policies etc. have an impact on the decisions that are made by the central banks further affecting the movements of currencies. For example, if one central bank decided to increase the rates of interest, this action will almost certainly affect currency trading around the globe, particularly if other countries are involved in QE operations.

As forex trading is a common practice, it is very important for anyone investing in it to know how monetary policies function. It has established that currency values are dynamic and vary depending on events, policies, and various other facets of trade and as such this knowledge will be several fold beneficial to traders. It applies whether you are trading the EURUSD or any other currency pair, central banks will always dictate the direction of the Forex market.

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Matt

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Matt is Tech blogger. He contributes to the Blogging, Gadgets, Social Media and Tech News section on TechScour.

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