What are the instruments used by the Central Bank to control the supply of money in any economy?
The Central Bank uses certain instruments to control the supply of money in any economy. Such instruments are:
(i) Open market operation: OMO involves the buying and selling of securities by the central bank in order to control the volume of money in the economy.
(ii) Discount rate: This is also known as Bank Rate. It is the rate at which the central bank charges interest on commercial and other financial institutions for discounting bills of exchange or lending to commercial banks. If the central bank wants to curtail bank lending, it will raise its discount rate, thereby forcing other rates to rise. This will make lending unfavourable to the public, thereby reducing the volume of money in circulation. On the other hand, if the CBN wants to pump money into the economy, the discount rate will be reduced.
(iii) Special directives: These are special directives given to the commercial banks and other financial institutions by the central bank as to the areas of priority which their lending activities should follow.
(iv) Moral suasions: This is more or less an appeal to the commercial banks by the central bank to behave in certain ways.
(v) Special deposits: The commercial banks are compelled by law to keep certain percentages of their deposits with the central bank. If this is high, it will reduce the volume of loans given to the public and vice versa.
(vi) Cash ratio/Liquidity ratio: This is also known as cash reserve ratio or liquidity ratio. The Central bank uses this ratio to increase or decrease the volume of money in circulation in a country. Like other methods, if the central bank wants to increase the amount of money in circulation in the economy during a deflationary period, it will lower the ratio thereby expanding the lending abilities of commercial banks and vice versa.
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