Bank of England's Bailey says we must be ready for further stimulus

LONDON: Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the British central bank and other policymakers had to be ready to take further action to help the country's economy because of the risk of long-term damage caused by the coronavirus shutdown.

"We are still very much in the midst of this," Bailey told broadcasters.

The BoE is expected to announce a fresh increase of at least 100 billion pounds ($126 billion) in its bond-buying firepower next week.

Bailey said a record fall of 20pc in Britain's economic output in April announced earlier on Friday was close to the BoE's expectations for the month, and repeated his view that there had been some signs of a recovery since then.