The Bank of England’s (BoE) quantitative easing (QE) during the COVID-19 pandemic did contribute to soaring inflation in the UK, but the impact was hard to predict at the time, the central bank’s Governor Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday.
Bailey also said former Prime Minister Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s so-called mini-budget has damaged the UK’s reputation.
Bailey was grilled over the BoE’s role in current inflation when attending a hearing of Parliament’s Treasury Committee with his colleagues from the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
Asked about the bank’s forecast that the UK will enter a two-year recession—the longest since the Great Depression—the MPC panelists said the recession is not expected to be deep and the length could easily be longer or shorter….