In: Economics
The central bank affects the short-term interest rates with the
monetary policy with the goal of attaining low inflation and
sustainable growth in the economy. Discount rate refers to the rate
of interest that the Central Banks charge commercial banks for
short-term loans. Lowering the discount rate will be expansionary
as it has influence on other rates of interest. The lower rates
will encourage spending and lending by businesses and consumers. In
a similar approach, an increase in the discount rate will be
contractionary because the rate of discount has influence on the
other interest rates. The higher rates will discourage spending and
lending by businesses and consumers.
When FOMC want to create a higher incentive for banks to lend their
excess reserves, it can reduce the rate of interest it pays on
excess reserves. Consequently the banks tend to lend money instead
to hold it in reserve thus resulting to an expansionary policy. In
a similar approach, if FOMC want to reduce the bank's incentive to
hold more excess reserves, it reduce the lending by increasing the
interest rate paid on reserves, and leading to a contractionary
policy