BOE’s Vlieghe: Central banks using balance sheets in no way detracts from ability to hit inflation target

The Bank of England (BOE) policymaker Gertjan Vlieghe is on the wires now, via Reuters, delivering a speech titled "Monetary policy and the Bank of England’s balance sheet" on webcast.

Key quotes

Central banks using balance sheets in no way detracts from independence and ability to hit the inflation target.

The UK has an institutional framework in place to make it abundantly clear that the MPC is in charge of monetary policy.

We are experiencing an economic contraction that is faster and deeper than anything we have seen in the past century, or possibly several centuries.

Not a simple supply shock, consequently there is far more scope for active policy response.

Once the pandemic is over, in principle UK economy should return approximately to the pre-virus trajectory.

Persistent undershoot of the economy relative to its pre-virus trajectory is most likely to be disinflationary.

The ways & means facility exists purely as a back-up to debt management office fine-tuning operations.

Short-term nature of ways and means operations means they do not in any way affect the MPC’s ability of doing its job of meeting the inflation target.

Market reaction

GBP/USD keeps gains around 1.2350, as the bulls remain undeterred by the devastating UK PMIs while the above comments also fail to move the GBP.