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Why did foreign central banks raise interest rates during the Great Depression?

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A long line of unemployed men in coats and hats stands outside a soup kitchen in Chicago, with a storefront sign reading Free Soup, Coffee and Doughnuts for the Unemployed. — Great Depression Unemployed men standing in line outside a soup kitchen, Chicago.

During the Great Depression, foreign central banks raised interest rates primarily to defend the gold standard and counteract trade imbalances.12

As the United States economy contracted, deflation made American goods more attractive to foreign buyers, while Americans reduced their demand for foreign products. This shift caused the United States to run a trade surplus, which led to significant gold outflows from other countries toward the U.S.12

To prevent the depletion of their gold reserves and the subsequent devaluation of their currencies, foreign central banks increased their interest rates. While this action was intended to stabilize their position under the gold standard, it had the unintended consequence of forcing a massive monetary contraction worldwide. This policy depressed output and prices and increased unemployment in those countries, effectively transmitting the American economic decline to the rest of the world.12