Rising Inflation in the UK

Unit 6: In no more than 300 words, explain how changes in the Bank of England’s official rate can modify the impact of foreign inflation on domestic inflation.

To begin, the article explains the Federal Reserve’s plan to take a careful approach to enacting contractionary monetary policies, policies used to decrease money supply, in the future. Last December the Federal Reserve raised the interest rates after they had been near zero for years to ensure inflation was kept in check and to promote economic growth. It appeared the economy would be in for another increase in the interest rates sometime this year, but the Feds have rethought that strategy. If the Federal Reserve were to continue to raise interest rates it would have short-run and long-run effects on the Money Market, Goods and Services Market, Planned Investment, Phillip Curve, and Aggregated Supply and Demand. These effects are aspects that have to be considered because they express and explain the effects the increase in interest rates has on the economy and explain if the Federal Reserve is enacting the correct policy to achieve their goal.

The term monetary policy refers to what the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, does to influence the amount of money and credit in the U.S economy. The main goals of this policy are to achieve or maintain full employment, as well as, a high rate of economic growth, and to stabilize prices and wages. By enforcing an effective monetary policy, the Federal Reserve System can maintain stable prices, thereby supporting conditions for long-term economic growth and maximum employment. Up until the early 20th century experts felt that monetary policy had little use in influencing the economy. After WWII inflationary trends caused governments to ratify measures that decreased inflation by restricting growth in the money supply.

Monetary policy consists of specific changes in the money supply to influence interest rates which in return adjusts the level of spending in the economy. The goal of the policy is to achieve and maintain price stability, full employment, and economic growth. The regulation of the money supply and interest rates are controlled by a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve Board in the U.S., in order to control inflation. Monetary policy is only one of the two ways the government can affect the economy. By altering the effective cost of money, the Federal Reserve can ultimately change the amount of money that is spent by consumers and businesses.

With the UK it has had a big problem with inflation in the past; it rose to 28% in the late 1970s. This caused significant problems with their growth and also with their employment issues. The memory of this time makes the government very determined now to keep inflation under control. Instead of saving, consumers may start borrowing. £10,000 borrowed now will buy lots of things,

Conflict can occur between economic growth and inflation which in turn leads to conflict between unemployment and inflation. When an economy grows too quickly pressure on inflation rates increase. Australia’s current inflation rate is 1.3% (Economy Snapshot RBA 2016) The current acceptable rate of inflation nationally is between 1% to 3%. Inflation is defined as the sustained rise in the general level of prices in a market. For prices to be stable we should aim for 0% inflation rate. Introducing a fluid monetary policy which concentrates on identifying the fundamental causes of inflation rate rises in an economy, will assist in keeping inflation under control. For instance, if there were to be an excessive increase in demand for goods and services, demand being the primary factor for a rise in inflation, on a government level it should say to us, we need to identify the causes and commence action as quickly as possible to decrease the level of demand to ensure stability of the inflation

In order to reduce inflation the Australian government has traditionally implemented both contractionary fiscal and monetary policy. This would involve an increase in taxation or reduced government expenditure as well as increases in the official cash rate which would lead to a rise in interest rates in the economy to contain aggregate demand.

On the contrary, the government can increase spending if a recession is close or already happening and can lead to increased employment nationally. The central bank’s monetary policy can help by varying interest rates. They can lower interest rates to increase spending and raise them to decrease spending. To decrease inflation, the banks can reduce the supply of money, therefore giving citizens the incentive to spend less money and in turn, reducing the inflation.

Monetary policy is the process of the monetary authorities of a country primarily controlling the supply of money available, often targeting a certain rate of interest for the main purpose of promoting economic growth and stability. The Main Official goals usually include relatively stable prices with low unemployment. Discretionary monetary policy on the other hand, uses the Federal Reserve to increase the money supply; this is made possible by manipulating the four tools we learned about. The Federal Reserve uses open market operations when they have to purchase the

The relationship between inflation and unemployment is a topic, which has been debated by economists for decades. It is this debate that has made the opinions about it evolve. In this essay, the controversial topic will be discussed by viewing different economists’ opinions on that according to time sequencing.

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the UK government has been implementing various policies to combat the recession and stimulate economic growth. This essay will look at how effective the fiscal and monetary policies used since the crisis are in achieving the four-macro economic objectives. In addition, I will provide my input on the best way the UK government can carry out these policies.

They held that it was the government's duty to achieve the correct level of demand by manipulating its own spending and tax receipts, or in other words, to have an active fiscal policy. This policy required the government to spend more than it received if the economy had less than full employment. As a consequence, aggregate demand would rise through a multiplier effect and unemployment would fall. ' The inflation controversy - Demand-Pull or Cost-Push?'

The monetary base consists of central bank liabilities, so that central bank intervention on M0 generates a multiplied effect on M2. Hence, the money multiplier shows the relation of the monetary base and the MS (M2). Advantageously, the theory holds that central banks intervene through controlling the quantity of reserves that multiply up to a greater change in bank loans and deposits so that money growth is consistent with its objectives of stable inflation. By doing so, central banks bring about a desired short-term interest rate. Central banks take policy action through controlling reserve quantities. Central banks, however, actually set the cost of borrowing, not the quantity, as there is no other way for the system to be controlled

The Meaning of Inflation There are four macroeconomic policy objectives that a government pursues: high and stable economic growth, low unemployment, low inflation, the avoidance of balance of payments deficits and excessive exchange rate fluctuations. Some of these policy objectives may conflict with each other depending on the priorities of the government. A policy designed to accelerate the rate of economic growth may result in a higher rate of inflation and balance of payment deficit. Throughout the fifties and sixties, rates of inflation were generally low in the advanced industrialised economies.

Monetary policy involves manipulating the interest rate charged by the central bank for lending money to the banking system in an economy, which influences greatly a vast number of macroeconomic variables. In the UK, the government set the policy targets, but the Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are given authority and freedom to set interest rates, which is formally once every month. Contractionary monetary policy may be used to reduce price inflation by increasing the interest rate. Because banks have to pay more to borrow from the central bank they will increase the interest rates they charge their own customers for loans to recover the increased cost. Banks will also raise interest rates to encourage people to save more in bank deposit accounts so they can reduce their own borrowing from the central bank. As interest rates rise, consumers may save more and borrow less to spend on goods and services. Firms may also reduce the amount of money they borrow to invest in new equipment. A