Thursday 14 July 2016

Can we imply further NIRP if the BoE lowers rates?

Just as the United Kingdom received a new prime minister yesterday in Theresa May's appointment to Britain's political hot seat, focus now shifts to the Bank of England's interest rate decision with pundits expecting BoE governor Mark Carney to drop rates for the first time in seven years.

At first glance it appears the decision will be made as a reactionary measure following the developments concerning Brexit which probably holds the greatest weight in the argument to edge rates to all time lows. Needless to say it can also be seen as a coercive coordination in responding to the re-instituted quantitative stimulus by its developed nation counterparts such as the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan.

It's prudent to be reminded that although interest rates in the UK currently sits at all time lows of 0.5%, the central bank has an arsenal of monetary tools its able to enact to fight off dangers to the economy. It briefly paused its bond buying program in 2012 when other banks opted to continue and still extensively rely upon it but to no avail.

In the past four years the BoE has resisted the temptation to restart these programs however we need to question the British economy's capability in shielding itself from additional bond purchases that's ridden the strength of the British Pound since 2012 when stimulus was paused and in the light of the drastic economic upset from the Brexit vote to leave the European Union.

If the strength with which the British economy boldly defended its monetary policy stance has been wounded badly by the future outlook, then it brings into question the validity over the distorted might of the US economy that's hardly churned out economic growth sufficient to create waves in the global economy. It would suggest that it too is susceptible to becoming influenced by its fellow central bank counterparts exploring the riskiness of negative interest rate policy.

The BoE's decision will impact the global financial system more than simply the confines of its own economy with an action of lowering rates placing pressure on the US Federal Reserve in defending its case of normalisation of interest rates and in saying this implicitly suggest that its influence of directing world economic policy has been tremendously harmed.    

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