Printing cash boosted economy by 2pc
The emergency quantitative easing programme rolled out after the financial crisis boosted the economy by as much as 2 per cent, the Bank of England said, adding weight to calls for more money printing.
Its QE programme saw it buy £200 billion of assets, equivalent to about 14 per cent of GDP, between March 2009 and January 2010, to help breathe life into the UK economy following the credit crunch.
The report – its first to measure the effect of QE on the economy – found the stimulus measure provided a “significant” benefit to growth and helped GDP increase by around 1.5 per cent and 2 per cent. This was also equivalent to dropping interest rates by between 1.5 and 3 percentage points, it found.
Its findings will add to calls for the Bank to embark on a second round of money printing, or QE2.