Volatilities of price indicators have remained extremely stabilized during the period of low interest rates since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of September 2009. Low volatility pushes down risk premium. That could lead global investors’ risk appetite to increase. There has been a big change in global liquidity flows since 2009. Emerging market economies (EMEs), with relatively high credit risk, received a huge capital inflows backed up by the increased risk appetite of global investors.
US Federal Reserve is now trying to normalize its monetary policy by increasing the policy rate tied at zero low bound for about seven years. This will bring asset price volatility and risk premium to normalize too. We remain concerned about the downside risk to the capital outflows from EMEs, including Korea. And it may well potentially cause a decrease in asset price and a growth contraction in EMEs. Accordingly, we overview volatility of financial market and new trends in capital flows, and identify the determinants of capital flows to/from EMEs. We also review the use of capital flow management policies in EMEs including Korea, and examine the effectiveness of Asset？Based Reserve Requirements (ABRR) as an alternative macro-prudential policy measure to manage capital flows.