Meaning & use
tight-money policy
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Meanings
nouncountablefinancespecialist
A government or central-bank policy that makes money harder to borrow, usually by raising interest rates.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a tight-money policy' or 'tight-money policies'.
Patterns
- adopt a tight-money policy
- pursue a tight-money policy
- a tight-money policy aims to
The central bank adopted a tight-money policy to bring inflation under control.
A tight-money policy usually slows down borrowing and spending.
Critics say the tight-money policy is hurting small businesses.
noununcountablefinance
The general economic condition in which loans are difficult to get and interest rates are high.
Grammar: Used without 'a' when talking about the situation rather than a specific decision.
Patterns
- under a tight-money policy
- tight-money policy conditions
Under a tight-money policy, mortgages become more expensive.
The country struggled for years under tight-money policy conditions.
Word forms
| plural | tight-money policies |
|---|
Common combinations
- adopt a tight-money policy
- The government adopted a tight-money policy after the election.
- pursue a tight-money policy
- The bank has pursued a tight-money policy for two years.
- a tight-money policy aims to reduce inflation
- A tight-money policy aims to reduce inflation by making credit expensive.
- loosen a tight-money policy
- As the economy weakened, officials began to loosen the tight-money policy.
Synonyms and how they differ
- contractionary policy
- A broader economics term for any policy that slows the economy, not only one that restricts money.
- restrictive monetary policy
- More formal and precise, often used in academic writing; 'tight-money policy' is more common in news reports.
Opposites
Word family
- tight money noun
- The situation itself, when credit is hard to get.
- monetary policy noun
- The general term for a central bank's decisions about money and interest rates.
Commonly confused: tight-money policy or fiscal policy?
tight-money policy vs fiscal policy
Fiscal policy is about government taxes and spending, while a tight-money policy is about controlling the supply of money and credit.
Practice
To fight rising prices, the central bank announced a ______ policy.
Choose one answer.
'Tight-money' is the fixed compound adjective used before 'policy'. The other options are not established forms: 'tightly' is an adverb and cannot modify 'money' here, and 'tightened' is a verb form that does not combine this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tight-money policy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.