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Bank turns off the taps
THE BANK of England yesterday agreed a halt to quantitative easing (QE) for November, with economists warning the policy is close to running its course.
The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) rejected both a change in rates and QE – stopping asset purchases for only the third time since the policy began.
While some analysts threw cold water on the effectiveness of QE, many believed the decision was close-run and poor data would bring the Bank back to the policy again.
“QE is not a very powerful tool to boost growth,” said Michael Saunders at Citi. But he nevertheless expected: “The MPC will resume QE quite soon, prompted by disappointing data.”