New Bank Boss ‘To Tackle Virus'

The new governor of the Bank of England has started his first day in the job vowing to take “prompt action again” to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

- Simon Neville

Andrew Bailey, who took over from Mark Carney yesterday, said the Bank was in discussions with epidemiologists to better understand how long the virus is likely to hit businesses.

Most economists agree the worldwide economic fallout is likely to be extreme, with forecasts for a recession already made.

Mr Bailey said: “There’s two parts. First of all, of course, is how long Covid itself is going to go on for. Obviously that’s not something that, as a central bank, we have expertise in.