Monetary policy responses to COVID-19 in emerging European economies: measuring the QE announcement effects on foreign exchange markets

This paper examines the effects of quantitative easing (QE) announcements by emerging market central banks in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on exchange rates with a higher frequency setting. Two different methodologies are used for analysing the policy announcement effects. The first methodology is the event study method that measures the sample exchange rates’ mean and cumulative mean abnormal return around the time of event. The second one is the time series approach that measures asymmetric behaviour of the exchange rate volatility to monetary policy shocks by employing exponential GARCH model. The results show that the foreign exchange markets respond to QE announcements in all selected countries. The response of exchange rates varies across countries and event windows. QE announcements cause appreciation of domestic currency in Hungary and Poland, and depreciation in Turkey. Additionally, the QE announcements increase exchange rate volatility in Hungary and Poland while they reduce volatility in Turkey. The asymmetric behaviour of domestic currencies prevails in all selected countries, but this asymmetry is sensitive to the exchange rate and the length of the window.