MNI BRIEF: BOE QE Review About Transparency, Not Direction

The Bank of England's review of its strategy for unwinding QE announced by Governor Andrew Bailey in early February is all about transparency in policy making rather than an indication of the direction of policy, Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said Wednesday.

Speaking at an online event, Ramsden said he still saw QE, rather than Bank Rate, as the Bank's tool of choice, indicating that he would prefer to vote for further asset purchases rather than taking Bank Rate negative if the need arose.

"For me (QE) is the marginal monetary policy tool at present. I said in a speech I gave in October that we had QE "headroom" remaining. And although we have announced £150bn more QE since then, that still remains the case," he said.