Part 17. How quantitative easing works
We saw in part 14 that when governments issue bonds and banks buy them it can increase the money supply. There is an analogue to this called quantitative easing which increases reserves at banks. It works by the central bank buying government bonds off banks.
To demonstrate quantitative easing, we will go back to our banks and accounts from part 15 where the two government bonds issued are still in circulation, and get Central Bank to purchase the £20,000 government bond from 2nd Bank. We need to introduce a new account at Central Bank we will simply call Government Bonds. The bond purchase transaction is shown in Figure 17.1
Figure 17.1 Government bond purchase by Central Bank.
And the complementary double entry for this interbank transfer is the reserves double entry as shown in Figure 17.2.
Figure 17.2 Reserves double entry for the bond purchase.
The balance sheets of all banks is shown in Figure 17.3, and as can be seen, 2nd Bank's reserves are now increased by £20,000 — at the expense of its government bond, and Central Bank's assets and liabilities are increased by the same.
Figure 17.3 Balance sheets after the central bank bond purchase.
So, quantitative easing only increases the reserves at banks. It doesn't directly increase the money supply that people and businesses use. As seen previously, reserves facilitate bank lending. However, quantitative easing doesn't necessarily mean banks will lend more, it just provides the means by which a bank can lend more. It also requires the availability of bonds to purchase.
