Economic Affairs Committee to examine the impact of Quantitative Easing on the ‘real’ economy
Monday 8 February 2021
On Tuesday 9 February 2021 the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee’s inquiry on Quantitative Easing (QE) will be taking evidence from two panels of witnesses.
These evidence sessions will be held remotely and streamed on Parliament TV.
At 3:00pm the Committee will hear from:
- Professor Tim Congdon CBE, Founder and Chairman, Institute of International Monetary Research
- Fran Boait, Executive Director, Positive Money
- Liam Halligan, economist, author and broadcaster.
At 4:00pm the Committee will hear from:
- James Smith, Research Director, Resolution Foundation
- Professor Özlem Onaran, Professor of Economics, Director of Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre, University of Greenwich.
The topics that will be covered by these sessions include:
- Effectiveness of QE and monetary policy in stimulating economic growth
- QE’s effect on the ‘real’ economy
- Whether QE is creating inflationary pressures
- Alternative approaches to QE that the Bank of England could be considering
- Distributional effects of the UK’s QE programme compared to other international QE programmes
- Risks that need to take into consideration when unwinding QE
- The appropriateness as a mandate of the Bank’s 2% inflation target
- How the Bank of England communicates decisions on QE
- Bank of England accountability
- Implications of QE on the UK’s macroeconomic policy framework
The committee is examining Quantitative Easing in the context of the Bank of England’s operational independence, its accountability and the transparency of its decision-making. It is also considering the economic effects of Quantitative Easing, what risks are entailed, its distributional impacts and the future of the programme.
Last week the committee took evidence from the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Sir Paul Tucker; Professor Daniela Gabor from the University of the West of England Bristol; Chris Giles from the Financial Times; and Philip Aldrick from The Times. You can watch the sessions back on Parliament TV.
On Wednesday 27 January 2021 the committee published a call for evidence inviting written submissions to this inquiry. The deadline for submissions is 26 February 2021.
More on the Economic Affairs Committee
The Economic Affairs Committee is one of the five permanent investigative committees in the House of Lords and is charged with considering economic affairs.
Committee Website
Twitter - @LordsEconCom
