Andrew Bailey: embattled Bank of England governor

Andrew Bailey: embattled Bank of England governor

LONDON “” Andrew Bailey took over as governor of the Bank of England last year, just as Covid hit Britain like a storm, sinking the economy to uncharted depths.

The economy shrank by 9.9 per cent last year due to the effect of the global health crisis -- the biggest contraction on record.

But if that was not enough to deal with, Bailey's first 12 months in office has seen him come under repeated scrutiny about his past role as head of the country's securities regulator.

The coronavirus pandemic gave Bailey, 61, from Leicester, central England, no time to settle in.

"It was the third day of my term when the markets team came into the office and said, 'we need to talk'. That's never good," he told the Financial Times last May. 

Under his leadership, the bank lowered its key interest rates to an all-time low and increased its asset-purchase programme to prevent the economy from going under.

A year on, the overall picture looks markedly different.

Some 25 million people -- or half of all the country's adult population -- has received a first dose of a vaccine and there are tentative moves towards easing lockdown restrictions.

The economic situation, too, appears to be improving.

But 2021