LONDON (MNI) – Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Ben
Broadbent has said that the MPC’s scope to conduct further asset
purchases is limited as inflation is higher than expected.
In comments carried in the Northern Echo newspaper, Broadbent also
said that monetary policy alone cannot solve the UK economy’s supply
side problems.
“If one hears politicians saying life would be better if we had
more monetary easing, well the truth is you always hear that from
government. We are in a position where we (the MPC) can judge it for
ourselves, but we are limited. Inflation is higher than we’d expect,”
Broadbent is quoted as having said.
“But it’s not possible for monetary policy to solve that (supply
capacity) on its own. I’m not saying it’s ineffective,” he said.
Broadbent said that without some of the stimulus measures the UK
would have had another Great Depression rather than a banking crisis.
Broadbent voted against the BOE’s latest round of its quantitative
easing programme when the decision to launch another stg50bln of asset
purchases was taken in July.
–London newsroom: 4420 7 862 7492; email: wwilkes@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$$BE$]
