Months ago I said the Bank of England would face a barrage of criticism and a challenge to its independence for failing to raise interest rates enough last year during the post-Covid economic rebound and then for putting them up big time now as we head into recession.
So it has proved. And by the way, this does not mean that Bank independence has failed, or that allowing politicians greater sway over how much and when interests rise, would be better. It probably wouldn’t be.
The Bank should stop pleading that its failure to call the inflationary turn early enough is irrelevant
Nor does it mean Liz Truss would be right to review the Bank’s mandate, or the target the government obliges it to meet (though there may be a case for this).
What it does mean is that the Bank should stop pleading that its failure to call the inflationary turn early enough is irrelevant, because the big contributor to our woes is Vladimir Putin’s wartime decision to limit the flow of gas.
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