Just over a year ago, I and a number of colleagues were due to go into the Bank of England for a farewell lunch with Mark Carney, the outgoing governor. None of us was surprised when it was cancelled, ostensibly because the Bank did not want to let a bunch of potentially infected journalists into its hallowed halls. There was another reason for the cancellation, however, which was that Carney and Andrew Bailey, his successor, were hatching a range of measures to support the economy during the pandemic. They included lower interest rates, eventually cut to only 0.1 per cent in March, an initial £200 billion more of quantitative easing, a term funding scheme for small and medium-sized companies and an easing of the capital

Source: The Times May 04, 2021 16:03 UTC