Credit control is the regulation of credit by the central bank for achieving some definite objectives. Modern economy is a credit economy because credit has come to play a major role in setting all kinds of monetary and business transactions in the modern economic system. Changes in the volume of credit influence the level of business activity and the price level in the economy.

Unrestricted credit creation by the commercial banks, by causing wide fluctuations in the purchasing power of money, may pose a serious threat to the national economy. Hence, it becomes necessary for the central bank to keep the creation of credit under control in order to maintain stability in the economic system.

Objectives of Credit Control

The important objectives of credit control are given below :

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1. Price Stability:

Violent price fluctuations cause disturbances and maladjustments in the economic system and have serious social consequences. Hence, price stability is an important objective of credit control policy. The central bank, by regulating the supply of credit in accordance with the commercial needs of the people, can bring about price stability in the country.

2. Economic Stability:

Operation of the business cycle brings instability in a capitalist economy. The objective of the credit control policy of the central bank should be to eliminate cyclical fluctuations and ensure economic stability in the economy.

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3. Maximisation of Employment:

Unemployment is economically wasteful and socially undesirable. Therefore economic stability with full employment and high per capita income has been considered as an important objective of credit control policy of a country.

4. Economic Growth:

The main objective of credit control policy in the underdeveloped countries should be the promotion of economic growth within the shortest possible time. These countries generally suffer from the deficiency of financial resources. Hence, the central banks in these countries should solve the problem of financial scarcity through planned expansion of bank credit.

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5. Stabilisation of Money Market:

Another objective of the central bank’s credit control policy is the stablisation of the money market as to reduce the fluctuations in the interest rates to the minimum. Credit control should be exercised in such a way that the equilibrium in the demand and supply of money should be achieved at all times.

6. Exchange Rate Stability:

Exchange rate stability can also be an objective of credit control policy. Instability in the exchange rates is harmful for the foreign trade of the country. Thus, the central bank, in the countries largely dependent upon foreign trade, should attempt to eliminate the fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates through its credit control policy.

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In the end, according to De Kock, “The most recent tendency in the official monetary circles is to combine the objective of international exchange stability with that of promoting and maintaining high levels of employment and real income.”