LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England can help spread the cost of the coronavirus crisis to society over time, Governor Andrew Bailey told ITV’s Peston show on Wednesday, stressing that the government had choices to make on fiscal policy.
“What we can do, providing the overall credibility of the framework remains in place – and independence is very important to that – is that we can help to spread over time the cost of this thing to society,” he said, referring to the central bank’s increased holdings of government debt.
“That, to me, is important,” he added. “We have choices there and we need to exercise those choices.”
(Reporting by William James; editing by Stephen Addison)
