Mutations at the Level of the Measures Adopted by Monetary Authorities

Abstract

Following the intensification of the international financial crisis in autumn 2008, the functioning of the financial system was seriously hindered. Central banks around the world responded firmly by lowering their key interest rates to historically low levels. As financial conditions did not improve as hoped and the real economy was still unstable, revealing therefore the limits of mainstream monetary policy, many monetary authorities employed several unconventional measures. The scope of this paper is to investigate two important approaches of classifying “unorthodox” monetary policies and review several measures undertook by central banks, highlighting the impact and some of the possible risks to the contemporary economy.