What is the immediate effect of a central bank selling government bonds on money supply and interest rates?

💡 Explanation:

Selling government bonds on the open market is a contractionary monetary policy action (Open Market Sales). When the central bank sells bonds, commercial banks use their reserves to purchase them, which effectively removes money from the banking system, thus reducing the money supply. A decrease in the money supply (or reserves) increases the cost of borrowing for banks, leading to a rise in market interest rates.