In reply to a questionnaire by the Treasury Select Committee, BoE policymaker Huw Pill said he expected interest rates to “remain at relatively low levels for the coming years, even as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic recede.”
But he acknowledged that “balance of risks is currently shifting towards great concerns about the inflation outlook.” Also, “current strength of inflation looks set to prove more long lasting than originally anticipated.” He emphasized that “risks to the economic and inflation outlook are again clearly becoming two-sided”.
On BoE’s balance sheet, Pill said, “at a time when financial markets appear to be functioning normally, a gradual and predictable reduction in the stock of asset purchases can be achieved without disrupting markets and/or creating an undesired abrupt tightening of financial and monetary conditions”.
ECB Accounts: Support from sustained pace of net PEPP purchases deemed essential
In the accounts of ECB’s September 8-9 meeting, Governing Council members concurred with the assessment that “an accommodative monetary policy stance remained”. Also, “policy support from a sustained pace of net purchases under the PEPP, along with the other instruments and the recalibrated forward guidance, was deemed essential”.
Financing conditions had “had remained favourable or had loosened further” since June, and was “visible across a broad spectrum of indicators”. Inflation outlook had a “significant improvement over the course of the year”. However, the near-term increase in inflation was “largely driven by temporary factors that would fade in the medium term and not call for policy tightening.”
Regarding the reduction in PEPP purchase pace in Q4, on the one hand, it was argued that “a symmetric application of the PEPP framework would call for a more substantial reduction in the pace of purchases”. On the other hand, “reference was made to the recent repricing in nominal bond yields, which called for a prudent reduction in the pace of purchases”.
Also, it’s noted that “markets were already expecting an end to net asset purchases under the PEPP by March 2022”, but such expectation was “not showing a significant impact on financing conditions”.
Overall, all members agreed to “moderately scale down the pace of purchases under the PEPP”.
Full accounts here.