The economy is growing at a blistering pace, and likely to recover all its Covid losses by the autumn. Labour shortages are emerging across a range of industries, as the supply of Eastern European workers dries up. Prices are starting to edge upwards, house prices are soaring, and commodities are getting more expensive. But, hey, it is probably a good moment to keep the printing presses rolling and pump plenty of freshly minted pounds into the economy.
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided not just to keep base rates at 0.1 per cent today – that was largely expected – but also to maintain its programme of quantitative easing at £875 billion. And it may well have blown its chance to nip inflation in the bud before it starts to escalate.
The world is experimenting with a form of ultra-Keynesianism, of a sort that outdoes even that seen during the 1960s
No one really expected any fireworks from the Bank today.
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