Bank of England set to reload bond-buying programme with £100bn

The Bank of England is expected to announce a further £100bn for its bond-buying programme when it meets next week in order to limit the damage to the UK economy by the coronavirus crisis.

The central bank has already spent the majority of the record £200bn expansion to its asset purchase programme which it made in March.

Although the BoE has reduced interest rates to an all-time low of 0.1 per cent when the lockdown measures were announced, it has not been willing to follow other central banks in setting negative rates.

As a result of the decision, the BoE’s main tool for stymying the looming recession is its bond-buying programme.

Economists are predicting that the bank will announce the extension to the facility when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets next week.

An extension of £100bn would mean the BoE could maintain its current pace of bond-buying until August, when the MPC will meet again.