The benefits of the Bank of England’s vast bond-buying programme are likely to “significantly or fully” offset its costs in the long term, Andrew Bailey has said, after mounting criticism of the scheme’s value to the taxpayer.
The intervention by the BoE governor on Tuesday came after investors and politicians called into question the costs and broader market impact of the central bank’s quantitative easing programme, after a drop in the value of its holdings of UK government bonds.
“It is likely that the fiscal benefits of QE significantly, or fully, offset the net lifetime transfers” from the Treasury under an indemnity deal signed by the BoE and the finance ministry in 2009, Bailey wrote in a letter to chancellor Rachel Reeves on Tuesday.