Recent Monetary Policy Statement of Bangladesh Bank (July 2009) : An Analytical Commentary

Monetary policy is the process by which the central bank of a country controls the supply of money, the availability of money, and the cost of money or rate of interest, in order to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy. Fiscal policy induced “demand management†approach as propagated by Keynes, which was popular in the post-Great Depression period, later made way to monetary policy led “stabilisation†approach in the period of high inflation of 1970s. While traditional fiscal policy solutions were useful in confronting unemployment by increasing spending and cutting taxes, counter-acting inflation entailed reducing spending or raising taxes. The growing importance of monetary policy and the diminishing role played by fiscal policy in economic stabilisation efforts may reflect both political and economic realities. Monetary and fiscal policies differ in the speed with which each takes effect as the time lags are variable. Monetary policy is flexible (rates can be changed each month) and emergency rate changes can be made, whereas changes in taxation take longer to organize and implement. Also, considerable time may pass between the decision to adopt a government spending programme and its implementation.