Why the Bank of England is looking unusually hawkish
Among other issues, policymakers fret about their credibility
THE BANK OF ENGLAND is an outlier. Investors expect it to raise interest rates before the end of the year and then to 1% by August 2022—faster than either the European Central Bank or the Federal Reserve (see chart). It may even start to do so before it finishes its programme of bond buying, known as quantitative easing. The bank’s leaders feel themselves to be in an exceptionally tricky position. Ben Broadbent, the deputy governor and a member of its monetary-policy committee for a decade, reckons it is “the most challenging period for monetary policy of any I’ve seen”.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Ready for a leap in the dark”
Britain October 23rd 2021
- Why the Bank of England is looking unusually hawkish
- The British government belatedly tries to prevent a porcine tragedy
- Britain has ambitious climate-change plans—and two problems
- The government wants pension funds to help with levelling up
- A plan to revive Britain’s rural railways gathers steam
- The British state is becoming worryingly reliant on its armed forces
- The death of Sir David Amess holds lessons for British politics
From the October 23rd 2021 edition
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