BoE Governor King
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said officials are prepared to do “whatever seems appropriate” to prevent a relapse in the U.K.’s economic recovery.
“Our central view is still that the most likely set of outcomes are along paths which involve a gradual recovery,” King said in testimony to Parliament’s Treasury Committee today. “But anyone who has lived through the last two years will surely know there must be enormous uncertainty on either side of that.”
The U.K. economy is entering a “very grave stage” and the Bank of England should expand its 200 billion-pound ($309 billion) bond-buying plan to fight the risk of a relapse, former Treasury adviser Roger Bootle said yesterday. Officials paused the program this month to gauge the strength of the recovery.
“Monetary policy can either be more expansionary or more contractionary as the situation demands,” King said. “We stand ready to do whatever seems appropriate.”
