Which action is a monetary policy tool involving the central bank's assets?

• A. Buy and sell government bonds
• B. Print money
• C. Offer tax cuts
• D. Provide subsidies

Answer: (A)

Open market operations are a monetary policy tool that uses the central bank’s asset holdings—primarily government bonds—to steer liquidity and short-term interest rates. When the central bank buys government bonds, it credits banks with additional reserves, expanding the monetary base and typically lowering interest rates. When it sells, reserves are drained, tightening liquidity and pushing rates higher. This is why buying and selling government bonds is the action that directly involves the central bank’s assets to influence the economy.

The other options describe fiscal policy or informal notions of money creation rather than asset-based central-bank operations: tax cuts and subsidies are government fiscal measures, and printing money is a colloquial way to describe increasing the monetary base but not the standard asset-trading tool of the central bank.