General and Selective Credit Control

These are imposed with the full apparatus of the law or informally using specific instructions to banks and other institutions.  For instance, the central bank can dictate a ceiling value to the amount of deposits the bank can create.  This is more effective in controlling bank lending than the cash and liquidity ratio.  It can also encourage banks to lend more to a certain sector of the economy (e.g. agriculture) than in another (estate building).  Selective controls are especially useful in less developed investment away from less important sectors such as the construction of buildings, the commercial sector, or speculative purchase of land, towards more important areas.