Banking: Quantitative Easing Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Banking: Quantitative Easing

Lord Lawson of Blaby Excerpts
Wednesday 27th March 2013

(11 years, 2 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Newby Portrait Lord Newby
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My Lords, to deal with that last point I will say that we do not need a change in the Bank of England Act because its basic provisions—namely, of inflation-targeting, and this year, as in previous years, we have a 2% inflation target—remain in place. The Chancellor has suggested, in changing the remit, that it would be appropriate for the MPC to deploy new explicit forward guidance, including intermediate thresholds, in order to influence expectations and meet its objectives more effectively.

Lord Lawson of Blaby Portrait Lord Lawson of Blaby
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My Lords, on the subject of the Bank of England’s remit, I warmly welcome the fact that the Government have firmly decided not to move away from the inflation target to a nominal GDP target, and have given very good reasons why that would be a disastrous course. Will the Minister take this opportunity to make it clear that neither the Government nor the Bank of England are pursuing a policy of exchange rate depreciation?