quantitative easing

American  

noun

Economics.

1. the policy by which a central bank creates money and uses it to purchase financial assets, thereby increasing the money supply and stimulating a weak economy. QE

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quantitative easing British  

noun

1. the practice of increasing the supply of money in order to stimulate economic activity

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Etymology

Origin of quantitative easing

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quantitative easing

Later dubbed "quantitative easing", such upheavals included the 1980s savings and loan crisis, the first Gulf War, the Mexican peso crisis and - shortly after he had retired - the global credit crisis in 2008.

From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026

Shrinking the balance sheet will offset at least some of the expansion generated by several rounds of quantitative easing that the Fed initiated during and after the 2008 and 2020 recessions.

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

Unwinding quantitative easing would reverse the Fed’s impact on asset and interbank markets, restoring the determination of interbank rates, long-term interest rates, mortgage spreads and equity prices to market forces.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

Congress can accelerate the process of unwinding quantitative easing by establishing a “QE resolution fund,” capitalized and chartered as an independent agency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

One kind of monetary policy, which involves the central bank buying private assets, is chunked as quantitative easing.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker