Grant me tighter policy...but not yet

摘要

THESE are extraordinary times for the Bank of England. Never before in the Old Lady's 323-year history has monetary policy been so loose for so long. During the financial crisis in 2008-09 Britain's base rate of interest was cut to 0.5%. After the Brexit referendum of 2016 the bank cut by a further 0.25 percentage points, in anticipation of the slowdown that most economists believed was to follow. The bank has bought more than £4oobn ($525bn) of government bonds under its programme of quantitative easing. At various points in recent years members of the bank's monetary-policy committee (mpc) have hinted that rate rises were on the cards. But never have they followed through.