Monetary Policy Responses to Covid-19: A Comparison with the 2008 Crisis and Implications for the Future of Central Banking

The policy responses of major central banks to the Covid-19 financial and economic crisis were faster, larger, and broader in scope than those in response to the 2008 global financial crisis. This article explains in detail the conventional and unconventional measures adopted by the U.S. Federal Reserve and reviews similar measures adopted by the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan. Apart from lowering interest rates and acting as lenders of last resort to financial institutions, these central banks embraced large scale asset purchases as a core crisis fighting tool, with the corresponding expansion in balance sheet that they entail. The article connects this change in emphasis in central bank intervention to the normalization of shadow banking, or market-based financial intermediation, that happened between the two crises. Other extensions of the role of central banks made possible by the scope of the policy responses to Covid-19, including direct support to sectors beyond the financial industry, are also explored.