Monetary policy
Also written Monetary Policies · Monetary policies
The central bank's management of money supply and interest rates to promote growth and hold prices stable — expansionary when it wants to push the economy up, contractionary when it wants to cool it.
In plain language
A central bank has one broad lever with several handles: the price and quantity of money. Make money cheap and plentiful and borrowing rises, spending rises, and the economy accelerates — along with, eventually, prices. Make it dear and scarce and the whole sequence runs backwards.
Monetary policy is that lever being worked deliberately. In India it is the Reserve Bank of India's job, and it is distinct from fiscal policy, which is the government's taxing and spending.
How it works
The workbook sets out the two stances and the five tools.
Expansionary monetary policy pushes the economy up by increasing the money supply steeply and reducing interest rates. Contractionary policy cools an overheated economy by reducing the money supply, or slowing its growth, and raising interest rates.
The tools:
- Repo rate — applied when the central bank is lending to banks against securities.
- Reverse repo rate — applied when the central bank is borrowing from banks against securities.
- Bank Rate — the rate at which the central bank lends to commercial banks without any collateral, for medium to long term or emergency needs.
- Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) — the minimum percentage of total deposits that commercial banks must hold as cash reserves with the central bank.
- Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) — the minimum percentage of total deposits that banks must hold in cash equivalents such as gold and government securities.
The workbook is careful to add that there is no sure-shot formula. The same action produces different outcomes in different economies, and correcting one problem can create another: stimulating a stagnant economy risks inflation, and cooling an overheated one risks slow growth and unemployment.
The formula
CRR balance = Net demand and time liabilities × CRR%
SLR holdings = Net demand and time liabilities × SLR%
Lendable resources = NDTL − CRR balance − SLR holdings
A worked example
A bank with net demand and time liabilities of Rs 2,00,000 crore, when CRR is 4% and SLR is 18%:
CRR with the RBI = Rs 8,000 crore (earns nothing)
SLR in G-secs/gold= Rs 36,000 crore
Locked up = Rs 44,000 crore, 22% of deposits
Cut the CRR by 50 basis points, to 3.5%. This one bank releases Rs 1,000 crore for lending. Across a banking system with Rs 220 lakh crore of NDTL, the same 50 basis points frees Rs 1.10 lakh crore.
Now the repo rate. The bank borrows Rs 5,000 crore overnight from the RBI. Raise the repo from 6.50% to 7.00% and its cost on that borrowing rises by Rs 25 crore a year.
What that does to a household. A Rs 50 lakh home loan over 20 years:
At 8.5% : EMI = Rs 43,391
At 9.0% : EMI = Rs 44,986
Difference = Rs 1,595 a month, Rs 3.83 lakh over the term
And the workbook's own caution, from the same chapter: the RBI raised rates through 2011, 2012 and 2013 to tame inflation — the standard action — and did not get the desired result, because food prices stayed high. The lever works on the part of the economy that borrows, not on the monsoon.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 5 (Economic Analysis, section 5.3.7) covers monetary policy immediately after fiscal policy, and Chapter 14 returns to the RBI's role in administering it. Expect a question on which stance does what, on which tool belongs to the central bank rather than the government, and on the repo versus reverse repo direction.
Common exam traps
- Repo is the RBI lending to banks; reverse repo is the RBI borrowing from banks. Both are against securities. Reversing them is the commonest error in the chapter.
- Bank Rate is uncollateralised and for medium-to-long-term or emergency needs; repo is short-term and collateralised. The distinction is examinable.
- CRR is cash held with the central bank; SLR is held on the bank's own books in gold and government securities. CRR earns nothing; SLR assets earn a return.
- Monetary policy belongs to the central bank, fiscal policy to the government. Taxation and government spending are never monetary tools.
- Expansionary is not "good". The workbook's own example is the RBI's 2011-2013 tightening failing against food-driven inflation, and it warns that every action carries unintended consequences.
- Raising rates is contractionary even though it raises the return to savers. Judge the stance by its effect on money supply and borrowing, not on any one group.
Check yourself
1.Two major influencers of the economic policies in an economy are __________ and __________.
- a)Government; Central Bank
- b)Stock Exchanges; Government
- c)Central Bank; Stock Exchanges
- d)Commercial Banks; Rating Agencies
Show the answer
Answer: (a) Government; Central Bank
The workbook states it directly: "Two major influencers of the public policies in an economy are the government and the central bank." Government decisions, collectively, are fiscal policy; central bank actions, collectively, are monetary policy.
Why the others are wrong: stock exchanges are trading venues, not policy makers — they set trading rules, not economic policy. Commercial banks transmit monetary policy, they do not make it. Rating agencies opine on credit quality and have no policy role at all. This exact question appears in the workbook's own sample set, so answer it in the wording above.
2.Which is the central bank in India with the responsibility of administering the monetary policy?
- a)State Bank of India
- b)Reserve Bank of India
- c)Central Bank of India
- d)Securities and Exchange Board of India
Show the answer
Answer: (b) Reserve Bank of India
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the central bank of the country which has the responsibility of administering the monetary policy.
Its key concern is to ensure the adequate growth of money supply in the economy so that economic growth and financial transactions are facilitated, but not so rapidly which may precipitate inflationary trends.
Its Preamble: "…to regulate the issue of Bank Notes and keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage".
The six main functions:
As the monetary authority — to formulate, implement and monitor the monetary policy in a manner as to maintain price stability while ensuring an adequate flow of credit to productive sectors of the economy.
As the regulator and supervisor of the financial system — to prescribe broad parameters of banking operations, aiming to maintain public confidence in the system, protect the interest of the people who have deposited money with the banking system and facilitate cost-effective banking services.
As the manager of Foreign Exchange — to administer the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999.
As the issuer of currency — to issue currency and coins and to exchange or destroy the same when not fit for circulation.
Developmental role — to perform a wide range of promotional functions to support national objectives.
Banking functions — RBI acts as a banker to the Government and manages issuances of Central and State Government Securities. It also acts as banker to the banks by maintaining the banking accounts of all scheduled banks.
Options A and C are commercial banks, not the central bank.
3.Which of the following would be classified as an economic factor in a PESTLE analysis?
- a)Freedom of the press and ease of doing business
- b)Forex reserves and the monetary policy of the central bank
- c)Consistency of the legal system and enforcement of contracts
- d)Policies on waste disposal and protection of natural flora and fauna
Show the answer
Answer: (b) Forex reserves and the monetary policy of the central bank
Forex reserves and the monetary policy of the central banker are both listed by the workbook under Economic factors, along with GDP growth, inflation and interest rates, imports and exports, balance of payments, exchange-rate stability, taxation and a country's dependence on other countries for natural resources such as oil.
Option A is Political — stability in legislation and policy, minimal corruption and bureaucracy, freedom of press, ease of doing business. Option C is Legal, where the workbook cites the Vodafone retrospective tax case and the cancellation of telecom and mining licences. Option D is Environmental.
This maps directly onto a workbook sample question, which offers forex reserves, RBI monetary policy and resource dependence and asks which is economic — the answer there is "all of the given options".
Where this is taught
- Series XV · Chapter 5: Economic Analysisintroduced here
- Series SEBI-ICE · Chapter 4: Savings Related Productsintroduced here
Related terms
- Demand-pull inflationInflation caused by demand running ahead of the supply available to meet it — too much money chasing too few goods.
- Gross Domestic ProductThe market value of all final goods and services produced inside a country's borders in a period, whoever owns the producer — the standard measure of the size and growth of an economy.
- InflationA sustained general rise in the price level, which erodes what a rupee buys — and the reason a nominal return has to be deflated before it means anything.
- Gross National ProductThe market value of goods and services produced by a country's residents wherever in the world they are — GDP measured by nationality rather than by geography.
- Net Factor Income from AbroadFactor income earned by a country's residents abroad minus factor income earned inside the country by non-residents — the single adjustment that converts GDP into GNP.