What effect does Quantitative Easing have on inflation?

These evidence sessions will be held remotely and streamed on Parliament TV.

At 3:00pm the Committee will hear from:

• Melissa Davey, Director, Independent Evaluation Office of the Bank of England.

At 4:00pm the Committee will hear from:

• Nigel Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, Legal & General
• Adrian Grey, Global Chief Investment Officer, Insight Investment.

The topics that will be covered by these sessions include:

• How well the Bank of England understand its QE programme.
• The consequences if QE is perceived as a mechanism for financing Government spending, rather than for inflation rate targeting.
• Distributional effects of the UK’s QE programme.
• Rationale of the Bank for the quantity, type and maturity of assets it buys.
• Purpose of QE during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• QE’s impact on the independence of the Bank, or the perception of its independence.
• Impact the Bank’s asset purchases will have on inflation.

More on this inquiry

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 Institute of International Monetary Research, Positive Money, Resolution Foundation, University of Greenwich and the economist Liam Halligan. 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.

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