Monetary policy operations of debtor central banks in MENA countries

During the fi rst few years of the new millennium the world experienced historically low levels of interest rates. Starting from 1999 the Bank of Japan kept the Japanese interest rate at zero to reactivate the ailing Japanese economy. After the burst of the IT-bubble in the year 2000, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate to historically low levels and only started to increase interest rates during the year 2004. Albeit to a lesser extent, the European Central Bank also reduced interest rates considerably and only started to increase interest rates during the year 2006.