Bank of England Total Assets · % of United Kingdom GDP

## What this measures

The total assets on the balance sheet of the Bank of England, as a percentage of United Kingdom gross domestic product, at the end of each quarter, as the BIS compiles it. Q4 1955 to Q2 2026.

## Why it matters

Central banks grew their balance sheets by buying bonds (quantitative easing) and lending to banks; scaling by GDP makes those programmes comparable across countries and over time. Shrinking it (quantitative tightening) drains reserves from the banking system.

## How to read it

Q2 2026: 25.8% of GDP; the highest in this record is 48.2% (Q4 2021). Large values in small open economies (Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore) mostly reflect foreign-exchange reserves, not bond buying.

## What it does not say

Balance sheets differ in what they hold (government bonds, loans to banks, foreign currency), so equal ratios can mean very different policies. GDP is a year’s output and the BIS compiles it from national sources; quarterly dates mark the end of the quarter.

## Source

Bank for International Settlements, Central bank total assets (WS_CBTA), series WS_CBTA/Q.GB.B.XDF_R_B1GQ._Z.B, via the BIS statistics API (stats.bis.org). BIS terms: "The use of BIS statistics is unrestricted, provided that if the statistics are reproduced, the BIS must be cited as the source" (bis.org/terms_statistics.htm); shown in the product, not sold through the API. Read daily by /api/cron/bis-sync.