Britain nearly went bust in March, says Bank of England

Quantitative easing reduced government borrowing costs as Covid-19 crisis hit markets

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Britain came close to effective insolvency at the onset of the coronavirus crisis as financial markets plunged into turmoil, the governor of the Bank of England has said.

Laying bare the scale of the national emergency at the early stages of the pandemic, Andrew Bailey said the government would have struggled to finance the running of the country without support from the central bank.