Monetary Policy

Economic strategy chosen by a government in deciding expansion or contraction in the country’s money-supply. Applied usually through the central bank, a monetary policy employs three major tools: (1) buying or selling national debt, (2) changing credit restrictions, and (3) changing the interest rates by changing reserve requirements. Monetary policy plays the dominant role in control of the aggregate-demand and, by extension, of inflation in an economy. Also called monetary regime. See also monetarism.