QE
Business & Finance abbreviation · Economics
| Stands for | Quantitative easing |
|---|---|
| Categories | Business & Finance |
QE stands for Quantitative easing, an economics abbreviation.
Monetary policy in which a central bank creates money to buy large amounts of government bonds or other financial assets, lowering long-term interest rates and supporting lending when short-term rates are already near zero. It expands the central bank's balance sheet.
Example: The central bank announced another round of QE, buying £150 billion of government bonds.
Usage notes
The Bank of Japan pioneered QE in 2001, and the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and ECB used it heavily after 2008 and again in 2020; the Fed's balance sheet reached about $9 trillion in 2022. Critics argue QE inflates asset prices and widens wealth inequality. The reverse process is quantitative tightening (QT).
Related abbreviations
More economics abbreviations
- PIIGS – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain
- PMI – Purchasing Managers' Index
- PPF – Production possibilities frontier
- PPI – Producer price index
- PPP – Public-private partnership
- PSU – Public sector undertaking
- QT – Quantitative tightening
- RBA – Reserve Bank of Australia
- RBI – Reserve Bank of India
- REER – Real effective exchange rate
- RPI – Retail Prices Index
- SDR – Special drawing rights