An open market operation (also known as OMO) is an activity by a central bank to buy or sell government bonds on the open market. A central bank uses them as the primary means of implementing monetary policy. The usual aim of open market operations is to control the short term interest rate and the supply of base money in an economy, and thus indirectly control the total money supply. This involves meeting the demand of base money at the target interest rate by buying and selling government securities, or other financial instruments. Monetary targets, such as inflation, interest rates, or exchange rates, are used to guide this implementation.
Read more about Open Market Operation: Process, Possible Targets
Famous quotes containing the words open, market and/or operation:
“O polished perturbation! golden care!
That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The only reason to invest in the market is because you think you know something others don’t.”
—R. Foster Winans (b. 1948)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)