Monetary authority is a generic term in finance and economics for the entity which controls the money supply of a given currency, and has the right to set interest rates, and other parameters which control the cost and availability of money. Generally a monetary authority is a central bank, though often the executive branch of a government has de facto control over monetary policy by controlling the central bank. There are other arrangements, for example a central bank for several nations, a currency board which restricts currency issuance to the amount of another currency or free banking where a broad range of entities can issue notes or coin.

See also

• Central bank
• deflation
• fiat money
• gold standard
• hyper-inflation
• inflation
• monetarism
• seignorage

Central banks