Monetary transmission in the euro area: early evidence

We examine the euro area monetary policy transmission process using post-1999 data, with two main questions in mind: has it changed after – and because of – economic and monetary union (EMU) and, if so, is it becoming homogeneous across countries? Given the data limitations, we concentrate on three components of the transmission mechanism: the banking, the interest rate and the asset market channels. We find evidence that the transmission through banks has become more potent and homogeneous across countries. On the financial market channels, our evidence is somewhat weaker but suggestive. The interest rate channel appears to have changed even before EMU, and now affects national economies in a broadly similar way. The asset market channel (proxied by the stock market effects of monetary policy) also seems to work rather homogeneously across national markets (no comparison with pre-EMU is available here). A positive answer to both questions raised above represents, in our view, the best working hypothesis under current knowledge.