As a country, we are trying to rebalance our economy at a time when a global slowdown, and concerns about the solvency of European banks and sovereigns, threaten recovery here in the United Kingdom. Two weeks ago, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to resume its asset purchase programme and create new money. Before I set out the reasons for that decision, I want to explain why the global nature of the crisis means that monetary and fiscal policy in the United Kingdom can only do so much. Our fate rests to a considerable extent on the policies pursued by our trading partners. That is why the Chancellor and I put such weight on this interdependence among the major economies at last weekend’s G20 Meetings in Paris. Countries have responsibilities to each other, and we need to work with our partners overseas to find a solution to present problems. Four years into the crisis it is surely time to accept that the underlying problem is one of solvency not liquidity – solvency of banks and solvency of countries. Of course, the provision of additional liquidity support to countries or institutions in trouble can buy valuable time. But that time will prove valuable only if it is used to tackle the underlying problem.
By far the most effective way of helping SMEs quickly would be to provide incentives for lending by existing banks because they can assess credit risk in a way that no other institution could do in the immediate future. Bank and Treasury officials are working together on such ideas. In the end, however, the shape and parameters of any scheme will be, and properly so, determined by the Government. Let me sum up. From the very beginning of the global crisis there has been a reluctance by governments to face up to the underlying solvency problems generated by apparently unending trade deficits with no mechanism, whether flexible exchange rates or some other means, for correcting these disequilibria. Those solvency problems have shown up on country and bank balance sheets. The initial reaction has always been to provide liquidity: through central banks or an extension of official lending by governments. Providing liquidity to buy time to devise and put in place a coherent response to the underlying problem can be not only valuable but necessary. But liquidity can never be the answer in itself. And if the time bought is not used then the size of the debt problem becomes larger and its cost is gradually transferred from private sector creditors to taxpayers. The main impediment to the strategy of rebalancing our economy is markedly slower growth in our major export markets, especially in the rest of Europe.