BoE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said he’s “certainly not going to rule out” an increase in the asset purchase program at the meeting next week. “It’s quite possible that we could do more at that meeting or at subsequent meetings. But we will make that decision at the time,” he said.
He added that BoE still had “quite a lot of headroom” in terms of gilt purchases, and “we have the potential to flex any purchases program.
On the topic of negative rates, he said “we are keeping out whole tool-set under active review”. It was “perfectly reasonable to have an open mind on negative rates,” he said.
Released from UK, retail sales dropped -18.1% mom, -22.6% yoy in April. Ex-fuel sales dropped -15.2% mom, -18.4% yoy. Public sector net borrowing surged to GBP 61.4B, up from GBP 14.0.
