Reuters (April 29)
“There’s an end to everything except, apparently, central bankers’ creativity. Virus-damaged economies will need lots of help to heal, and more downturns are inevitable in the future. The monetary-policy bigwigs will keep coming up with more new ways to stimulate growth.” The Fed and BoE may “eventually overcome their aversion to negative interest rates” and/or “copy Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda’s yield-curve control policy of targeting specific levels for 10-year government bond yields.”
Tags: BOE, BOJ, Creativity, Damaged, Downturns, Economies, Fed, Growth, Heal, Kuroda, Monetary policy, Negative interest, Virus, Yield curve
Reuters (December 16)
With Mark Carney on the way out, the next Governor of the Bank of England will need to “believe in magic…. If all goes well, he or she will not only face the developed world’s current issues of stubbornly low inflation rates, easy credit and climate change. If Brexit also goes wrong, the new bank chief will also need some preternatural gifts.”
Tags: BOE, Carney, Climate change, Developed world, Easy credit, Governor, Inflation, Magic, UK
The Guardian (August 9)
“The era of low interest rates will last for at least another 20 years, despite gently rising official borrowing costs in the coming years, one of the Bank of England’s leading policymakers has forecast.” Outgoing monetary policy committee (MPC) member Ian McCafferty said that “structural changes in the global economy meant UK borrowers and savers should get used to interest rates being “significantly” below the 5% average in the 10 years leading up to the financial crisis.”
Tags: BOE, Borrowing, Costs, Era, Financial Crisis, Global economy, Interest rates, Low, MPC, Structural changes, UK
Investment Week (November)
The recent 0.25% increase “in interest rates announced by the Bank of England leaves us with no more clarity about the direction of monetary policy than we had before the micro-adjustment. Indeed, the increase raises rather more questions than it resolves.” The cut may simply reverse “the rather ill-judged post referendum cut,” Or it could be one off “nod to those worried about inflation becoming more embedded.” Or it could be “the start of a sequence that will see regular increases in rates along a path towards normalisation.”
Tags: Adjustment, BOE, Clarity, Direction, Inflation, Interest rates, Monetary policy, Normalisation, Referendum
Reuters (November 3)
“The Bank of England’s first rate rise in over a decade is for now at least a ‘one and done’ move, according to economists in a snap Reuters poll who said the next increase won’t come until after Brexit in March 2019.”
Tags: BOE, Brexit, Economists, Increase, One and done, Rate rise, Snap poll
Wall Street Journal (November 5)
“The drumming you hear in Washington, Frankfurt and Tokyo is the accompaniment to the Central Bank Limbo, as the world’s monetary maestros line up to see how low they can go. The Bank of England (BOE) joined the queue Thursday with its announcement that a rate increase will again be delayed.” BOE Governor Mark Carney warned a year and a half earlier “that a rate rise could come ‘sooner than markets currently expect.’” Nevertheless, “Britain’s monetary-policy committee reverted to dovishness at its meeting this week.”
Tags: BOE, Carney, Central bank, Dovish, Frankfurt, Limbo, Markets, MPC, Rate increase, Tokyo, Washington
