Implications of a managed floating exchange rate system on the interest-rate behavior of Singapore

Singapore and Hong Kong are two similar economies, but they have rather different monetary systems and exchange-rate regimes. Singapore’s managed floating exchange rate regime contrasts with Hong Kong’s currency board system (CBS) featured by the Hong Kong–United States dollar peg. In this paper, we appraise the implications of the managed floating exchange rate regimes on the interest-rate behavior of Singapore. We examine the Singapore-US interest differential under the Singapore’s exchange-rate regimes during the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC), current Global Financial Crisis and none-crisis periods by using generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model. We hope that the good performance of Singapore’s exchange rate system and interest rate system, after successfully moving away from a currency board system to a credible managed floating exchangerate regime, provides a lesson worthy of attention to Hong Kong