The Bank of England is to buy £10bn of bonds issued by private companies, including Apple and other overseas corporations, as it begins a dramatic expansion of its quantitative easing programme. Until now, QE, designed to boost the economy by lowering interest rates, has focused on purchasing and, in effect, cancelling UK government bonds, known as gilts. When the list of eligible companies was published on Monday, one major bond dealer said he was astonished at the names included. The Bank has said it will only buy the bonds of companies “making a material contribution to the UK economy”. Bonds with a face value of about £110bn will be eligible for buying by the Bank, although the central bank is only planning to buy £10bn of these bonds.

Source: The Guardian September 13, 2016 11:10 UTC