Central Banks have a crucial role in determining a country’s monetary policy, from raising interest rates, controlling the assets of the country and so on. But primarily, their main job is to manage the money supply and interest rates to achieve specific economic objectives set by the governments of the country.
The Roles of Central Banks:
Open Market Operations (OMO):
The first role of central banks that we are going to discuss is going to be the open market operations. Central banks of a country conduct operations in the free market via primary dealers. These operations include buying and selling short-term government securities, which influences the supply of the money in the free market. To conduct “Open Market Operations” central banks may use repurchasing agreements, or repos, or outright purchases.
Reserve Requirements Implementation:
Central banks set the reserve ratios for each type of deposits, which leads to the amount which a commercial bank must hold as reserve. These requirements serve as a tool to manage the money multiplier effect, or the total amount of money that is in circulation in the economy. There are some central banks that use a corridor system to implement the reserve requirements’ implementation system: the policy rates form the center of the system and the reserve requirements act as an upper and lower limit for the short term interest rate.
Discount Rate Mechanisms:
Another role that the central banks assume in a country’s monetary policy is that they are able to conduct discount rate mechanisms. This rate represents the cost of borrowing from a central bank. The central bank may use the discount rate to signal and notify the markets about their stance on the monetary policies. Finally, discount window facilities are the types of debts that commercial banks gets which generally has a higher rate than the others.
Interest Rate Transmission Mechanism:
A vital role of the central banks are that they can control the interest rate of the economy with various things like expectations channel, credit channel and the exchange rate channel. The yield curve of interest rates is a vital graph that the central bank needs to analyze and adjust their policies.
Inflation Targeting Strategies:
Inflation targeting often involves having a specific interest rate as the main objective in the monetary policy. There are different methods of how central banks might want to approach the interest rate in the economy: Firstly, there is a flexible approach where the central bank targets a range of values for the interest rate instead of a specified interest rate. This allows for a balanced approach to the multiple objectives that the central bank has. Core inflation values, excluding the needs of survival, are used for targeting the inflation.
Framework for Financial Stability:
Another vital role of the central bank is to monitor the economy for financial stability and asses the risks and the vulnerabilities in the economic system. To test the financial stability is a crucial and vital aspect to measure the capabilities of the financial institutions to severe economic conditions. To ensure the financial stability, the central banks cooperate with the regulatory bodies to implement the right framework and the rules.
Exchange Rate Management:
Central banks are also responsible for managing the exchange rates in the country. These can vary in different types such as: fixed, floating, or managed floating. They generally manage the exchange rate by buying and selling the domestic currency to influence its parity with other currencies.
Lender of Last Resort Operations:
These types of operations involve providing emergency liquidity to the economy to stop or soften the damage that comes with the economic crisis of liquidity of money. To ensure this role, central banks may use many types of tools, including currency swaps, emergency facilities. These actions are usually used to maintain the financial stability of the economy.
Communication Strategies:
Central banks often use communication strategies to employ guidance to everyone that are present on the market with their expectations in regard to future actions. The tools that they use to ensure this method of them is to schedule press conferences, statements about the economic policies and forecasts about the future of the economy. To use communication strategies effectively, the central banks must be transparent and free from any form of oppression.
Researches Regarding the Economy and Analyzing these Researches:
Generally, central banks employ groups of economists and scientists to conduct and analyze the in-depth analysis that they have conducted regarding the way of the economy. Economic models and possible scenarios are tested in these analyses and help the central bank to cement the monetary policy with research-based evidence they have gathered. Finally, these researches are published in reports, press conferences etc. to the public.
Resources and Bibliography:
- https://www.ft.com/content/5d7851f3-ef7c-4599-8a5c-c34cecb83511
- https://www.imf.org/en/About/Factsheets/Sheets/2023/monetary-policy-and-central-banking
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/centralbank.asp
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