The financial crisis in late 2008 led to an economic downturn on a scale not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930's leading to central banks of many countries responding with a variety of conventional and unconventional measures.

As you may be aware, the Bank of England, like many other central banks, introduced a number of policy measures to loosen monetary conditions.  These were unconventional in nature as policy was constrained by the fact that interest rates were already close to their lower bound.  Without this intervention, economic growth would have been lower, unemployment would have been higher and many more people would have gone out of business, taking the jobs and livelihoods of many families with them.  This would have had a very detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in society.

Additionally, the new round of quantitative easing announced in August as this will directly increase private sector spending in the economy.  When the Bank of England purchases Government bonds, their price increases and reduces the yield that investors receive.  In turn, this encourages investors to buy other assets with higher yields instead, like corporate bonds and shares, and as more of these assets are bought, their prices rise, pushing down borrowing costs for businesses, encouraging them to spend and invest more.

This additional investment will directly benefit productive, job-creating areas of the economy and I welcome the news on 14 September that employment has reached a record high with 31.77 million people in work, that unemployment has reached its lowest level since 2005 and there are more women in work than ever before.

Regarding the Quantitative Easing Backbench Business Debate on 15 September, unfortunately I was be unable to attend due to other commitments.  However, I will continue to monitor developments on this important issue.