News — Bank of England

Quantitative easing

January 23, 2013 • Bank of England • Monetary Policy • Quantitative easing

Minutes of the MPC meeting held on January 9th and 10th were released today (Jan 23rd) and provided clear evidence that MPC members are shying away from further rounds of Quantitative Easing (QE). As the Committee pointed out, the underlying state of the UK economy is harder to gauge that usual given the one-off nature of the Olympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The view was that further asset purchases were unnecessary and may have a very weak effect on stimulating nominal demand.

Libor

November 6, 2012 • Bank of England • Competition • libor

The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which was introduced in 1984 by the British Bankers Association (BBA), provides a benchmark rate for inter-bank lending, and which is used to set other short-term rates.

Libor is based on a daily calculation of the average rate at which banks can borrow from each other in various currencies and for various maturities in the London interbank market. The increasing significance of the Libor rate reflects London’s growing importance as a global financial centre.