A man walks past the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on January 29, 2016, the day Haruhiko Kuroda, the central bank governor, surprised investors by adopting a negative interest rate strategy to spur banks to lend in the face of a weakening economy. Photo:Bloomberg A man walks past the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on January 29, 2016, the day Haruhiko Kuroda, the central bank governor, surprised investors by adopting a negative interest rate strategy to spur banks to lend in the face of a weakening economy. Photo:Bloomberg
A man walks past the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on January 29, 2016, the day Haruhiko Kuroda, the central bank governor, surprised investors by adopting a negative interest rate strategy to spur banks to lend in the face of a weakening economy. Photo:Bloomberg
Andrew Sheng
Opinion

Opinion

Andrew Sheng

Advanced economies swallowing negative interest rates with glee must remember this is not a cure for depression

  • Negative interest rates have not encouraged spending and have fuelled inequality. Instead of relying on central bankers to tweak monetary policy, governments must initiate structural reforms. However, with a global slowdown in the offing, this is unlikely to happen

Andrew Sheng
Andrew Sheng

Updated: 7:04am, 23 Nov, 2019

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A man walks past the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on January 29, 2016, the day Haruhiko Kuroda, the central bank governor, surprised investors by adopting a negative interest rate strategy to spur banks to lend in the face of a weakening economy. Photo:Bloomberg A man walks past the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on January 29, 2016, the day Haruhiko Kuroda, the central bank governor, surprised investors by adopting a negative interest rate strategy to spur banks to lend in the face of a weakening economy. Photo:Bloomberg
A man walks past the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on January 29, 2016, the day Haruhiko Kuroda, the central bank governor, surprised investors by adopting a negative interest rate strategy to spur banks to lend in the face of a weakening economy. Photo:Bloomberg
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Andrew Sheng

Andrew Sheng

Andrew Sheng is a former central banker and financial regulator, currently distinguished fellow at the Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong. He writes widely on Asian perspectives on global issues, with columns in Project Syndicate, Asia News Network and Caijing/Caixin magazines. His latest book is “Shadow Banking in China”, co-authored with Ng Chow Soon, published by Wiley.