Suppose that the European Union is now experiencing a recession. Its actual real GDP is €200 billion, and the estimate of its potential real GDP is €350 billion. The European actual unemployment rate is now 9.0%, while its estimated natural rate of unemployment is 4.5%. What open market operation would you suggest that the European Central Bank do? Explain how this open market operation would bring the European Union back to full employment.

Answer and Explanation:

As per the data given in the question,

The central bank have various tools to apply expansionary policy and these tools are :

- Reserve ratio.

- Discount rate.

- Open market operations.

The open market operations include the buying and selling of government owned securities by central bank to impact the monetary base in the economy. In case of any recession, the central bank should purchase government securities to enhance the money supply. Because whenever they do any kind of open market purchase there would definitely be increase in money in the economy. That's why increment in money supply decrease the interest rate in economy.

Nominal interest rate is the cost of borrowing so if there is decrement in interest rate, there would be consumption and investment activities. these both are the component of aggregate demand so the aggregate demand will increase, and this increment in aggregate demand helps the economy to recover in the situation of recession.