This recognition of the uncertainty and risks around the recovery has been backed up by separate decisions the MPC took in February on the toolbox measures we can employ. We have been quite clear these toolkit 8  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  8  decisions should not be interpreted as a signal about the future path of monetary policy. We decided to ask the banks to make preparations within the next six months, in case we need to use negative interest rates to provide further support. This implies nothing about our intentions in that direction, and nor does it imply that negative rates are our chosen marginal policy tool, something that in my view is state contingent at all times. We also signalled that the Bank will do work on the approach it would take to tightening policy, should that be needed, again recognising that it has more than one tool to do so. These decisions are detached from our current or likely future policy decisions, but do recognise the increasingly two-sided nature of the risks we face, as we hope and expect to see the economy get over Covid.
900 Broadbent, B (2012), “Productivity and the allocation of resources” Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2020), “Home working set to more than double compared to pre-pandemic levels once crisis is over” Cominetti, N, Henehan, K, Slaughter, H and Thwaites, G (2021), “Long Covid in the labour market: The impact on the labour market of Covid-19 a year into the crisis, and how to secure a strong recovery”, Resolution Foundation, February 2021 Decision Maker Panel (2021), Panel data – February 2021 Felstead, A and Reuschke, R (2020), “Homeworking in the UK: Before and During the 2020 Lockdown”, WISERD Report, Cardiff: Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Haldane, A (2020), “Is home working good for you?” Haldane, A (2021), “Inflation: a tiger by the tail?” Kim, H and Kung, H (2017), “The Asset Redeployability Channel: How Uncertainty Affects Corporate Investment”, The Review of Financial Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 245–280 Ramsden, D (2020), “The potential long term effects of Covid” Tenreyro, S (2020), “Monetary policy during pandemics: inflation before, during and after Covid-19” Vlieghe G, (2020), “Assessing the Health of the Economy”  14  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  14