Imperial Party forum

thomas davison

No more QE expected despite crisis
Press Association
Bank of England is expected to leave interest rates at their record low
The Bank of England is expected to hold back from pumping more cash into the economy despite the deepening threat posed to the UK by the eurozone debt crisis.

Its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is forecast to leave interest rates at their record low of 0.5% and the stock of quantitative easing at �325 billion, although the decision is set to be a close call.

The meeting comes as the pressure mounts on political leaders to draw up a firm action plan to tackle the mounting eurozone crisis as Spain appears to move closer to taking an EU bailout and a crucial election in Greece moves nearer.

And if a closely watched survey of the important services sector in the UK released hours before members make their decision shows a contraction it could prompt the Bank to fire up its money printing presses again.

A contraction of the services sector would add weight to fears that the economy is deteriorating after the manufacturing sector suffered a shock contraction in the second biggest decline in the 20-year history of the Markit/CIPS survey.

Industry data, such as the Markit surveys, have until recently painted a much more upbeat picture of the economy than official figures, which is why last week's manufacturing data came as such a shock and a contraction in the services sector may be crucial to the Bank's decision.

Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec, believes the manufacturing decline may have unnerved the MPC but it was not "a game changer", whereas a similar trend in the services sector, which makes up some three-quarters of the economy, would be "a different story".

Simon Hayes, an analyst at Barclays Capital, said: "If the services sector PMI published on Thursday morning were to show a similarly precipitous fall, the MPC is likely to give serious consideration to a QE expansion."

However, the City only expects the Markit data for the services sector to show a slow-down in growth rather than a contraction.

Mr Hayes does not believe such a performance would be enough to press the Bank into more action. He does not expect more QE until August when he predicts a �50 billion injection. The MPC's decision last month as to whether to expand its quantitative easing programme was "finely balanced", he said.

Every time the B.O.E. uses Q.E. it is devalueing your money so that it can buy less, in effect it is stealing your money to make sure its mates in the banks can afford they huge salaries and of course to help the Euro.
Why we need to do this is beyond me, the EU is going down the pan yet they steal your money to give to them while you can go and whistle, your only there to pay.