Bailey says BOE were too cautious about remaining firepower pre-COVID

Bailey says the BOE are not out of firepower (he's said that before) and that there are times that central banks need to "go big and go fast" - that's also in line with some of the BOE commentary recently. However, the new part here is that "it looks from today's vantage point that we were too cautious about our remaining firepower pre-Covid."

"We also made clear that our box does include other tools, including the possibility of negative rates. We have used private sector asset purchases through the corporate bond programme, longer-term liquidity provision to banks with targeted lending incentives, and direct purchasing of newly issued commercial paper to supplement market-based lending channels. We are not out of firepower by any means, and to be honest it looks from today's vantage point that we were too cautious about our remaining firepower pre-Covid. But, hindsight is a wonderful thing when you have it. In the decade ahead, I think we need to take on board the message the Covid crisis has reiterated, namely that our tools may be state contingent in their effects. And with that in mind, let's not ignore the need to manage central bank balance sheets to enable such state contingency to take effect. There are times when we need to go big and go fast."