Discount rate (bank rate), Managerial Economics

Assignment Help:

Discount Rate (Bank Rate)

This is the rate on central bank advances and is also called official discount rate or "minimum lending rate".  When commercial banks find themselves short of cash they may, instead of contracting bank deposits, go to the central bank, which can make additional cash available in its capacity as  "lender of last resort", to help the banks out of their difficulties.  The Central Bank can make cash available on a short-term basis in either of two ways; by lending cash directly, charging a rate of interest which is referred to as the official "discount rate", or by buying approved short-term securities from the commercial banks.  The central bank exercises regulatory powers as a lender of last resort by making this help both more expensive to get and more difficult to get.  It can do the former by charging a very high "penal" rate of interest, well above other short-term rates ruling in the money market.  Similarly, when it makes cash available by buying approved short-term securities, it can charge a high effective rate of interest by buying them at low prices.  The effective rate of interest charged when central bank buys securities (supplying cash) is in fact a re-discount rate, since the bank is buying securities which are already on the market but at a discount.

The significance of this rate of interest charged by the central bank in one way or the other to commercial banks, as a lender of last resort, is that if this rate goes up the commercial banks, who find that their costs of borrowing have increased, are likely to raise the rates of interest on their lending to businessman and other borrowers.  Other interest rates such as those charged by building societies on house mortgages, are then also likely to be pulled up.


Related Discussions:- Discount rate (bank rate)

Balance of payments - reason for protection, Balance of Payments Perha...

Balance of Payments Perhaps the most immediate reason for bringing in protection is a balance of payment deficit.  If a country had a persistent deficit in its balance of paym

Model specification - search and matching model, Model Specification   ...

Model Specification   We proceed with the model specification in the following steps. 1)  The economy is composed of competitive firms (F  in number) and identical workers

Expected utility, (Only for extra credit) Consider Freddy on a rainy Thursd...

(Only for extra credit) Consider Freddy on a rainy Thursday afternoon after losing in his favorite video game. His friend Tommy comes over to cheer him up and offers him the follow

Public expenditure, PUBLIC EXPENDITURE The accounts of the central gov...

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE The accounts of the central government are centered on two funds, the Consolidated Fund, which handles the revenues form taxation and other miscellaneous re

Derevatives ., how to solve problems using derivatives ?

how to solve problems using derivatives ?

cournot equilibrium, Air Canada and KLM compete for customers on flights a...

Air Canada and KLM compete for customers on flights among Amsterdam and Toronto. The total number of passengers (Q) flown by these two firms is the sum of passengers who fly KLM, Q

Determine marginal cost and hourly earnings, A firm hires two risk-neutral ...

A firm hires two risk-neutral workers to assemble bicycles and pays $20 for each assembly.Charlie's marginal cost of allocating effort (measured in dollars) to the production proce

Difficulties in using fiscal policy, Difficulties in using fiscal policy ...

Difficulties in using fiscal policy There are several problems involved in implementing fiscal policy.  They include: Theoretical problems Monetarists and the Keynesia

Monopolistic versus perfect competition, firms both in monopolistic and per...

firms both in monopolistic and perfect competition tend to make normal profits but why do they criticize only monopolistic competition

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd