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Will the Bank of England extend Quantitative Easing?
By Trevor Williams, Chief Economist, Corporate Markets
In the period since March 2009, the Bank of England’s Asset Purchase Facility (APF) has bought £200bn of UK fixed income securities, £198 of gilts and £2bn of corporate bonds.
This programme of asset purchases has now come to an end.
Will the central bank renew it this week by asking the Treasury for permission to purchase more and get the balance sheet to do so or will it suspend the programme, arguing that its job is done?
The gilts purchased by the Bank of England amounted to more than the net amount issued by the Debt Management Office (DMO), and not far off the gross amount of £225bn.
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* All charts are sourced to Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets Economic Research, Bloomberg, IMF and Datastream
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