While the transmission mechanism from official interest rates to the economy has been impaired by the dislocation of financial markets, the cuts in interest rates are still having an impact. While the reductions in the income of savers have offset to some extent the benefits to borrowers in the household sector, the net gain to the company sector is clear. The changes in interest rates have also accounted in part for the depreciation in the sterling exchange rate, which is down around a fifth in the past six months. No one who has lived through the 70s, 80s and early 90s will be complacent about a fall in sterling. But there is no doubt that an appreciable fall in the pound, such as we have seen, has been helpful both in supporting exports and import substitution in the short term and in encouraging the rebalancing of the economy that we need in the medium term. My second point is that it is important to distinguish the medium term from the short term goals. In the medium term we need to see a rebalancing of the economy in the UK, and some other countries, with a higher savings rates, less leverage in the financial sector, and higher net exports. However if everyone tries to increase saving and cut borrowing immediately we could prolong the downturn painfully. If everyone plans for the worst, we are more likely to get it.
As Chart 7 shows, in the housing market for example there is a clear difference between the biggest UK banks and the rest; we saw a big increase in lending especially by foreign banks in the years 2006 and 2007; many of them have now withdrawn from the market. On top of that, of course Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley have largely ceased new lending. As a result the continued lending of the main banks – and some smaller banks and building societies – is offset by reductions elsewhere. What matters for the economy as a whole of course is the total flow of credit. BIS Review 5/2009  3  The policy challenge Nearly all economic policy decisions work with a lag. So there is a limited amount we can do at this point to influence the path of output in the first half of this year (although there may be ways of mitigating the costs). The main challenge now is to prevent a deep recession being unnecessarily prolonged. I want to conclude by making three points about that challenge. First, the full impact of the measures of the last few months have yet to be felt. In the UK, the Bank has cut interest rates from 5% to 1.5% since October, the government has cut taxes and expanded spending and the banking system has been supported through recapitalisation and improved access to funding and liquidity. These measures will have a growing effect, even if we do nothing more.