quantitative easing

noun

finance

: a set of government policies that may be implemented by a central bank to increase the money supply in the economy

The Fed has already done plenty with its unique stimulus program of quantitative easing, or QE, the $85 billion-a-month purchase of bonds and mortgage-backed assets that started pumping cash into the system in 2008.

—Rana Foroohar

Speculation is increasing that in an effort to stimulate the sluggish economy, the central bank will soon announce additional quantitative easing, the strategy of buying long-term assets like Treasury bonds to lower long-term interest rates.

—Christine Hauser

Since 2000, the Bank of Japan has progressively increased the intensity of its quantitative easing programs in response to stagnant growth and failures in its banking system.

—Blaine Luetkemeyer

—abbreviation QE

Examples of quantitative easing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

First, in mid-December, the central bank reversed its long-standing policy of quantitative tightening, purchasing Treasuries to reduce the money supply, curb demand, and hence dampen the upward trend in consumer prices, and returned to quantitative easing. —Shawn Tully, Fortune, 28 Jan. 2026

Operation Twist, considered the third round of quantitative easing, raised concerns that the central bank was running out of conventional tools and rewriting the rules of monetary policy. —Brandon Kochkodin, Forbes.com, 26 Jan. 2026

The Federal Reserve, which influences interest rates through a similar but larger-scale (and thus more effective) process known as quantitative easing, has been offloading some of its own mortgage bonds. —Eleanor Mueller, semafor.com, 9 Jan. 2026

Unheard-of quantitative easing had been introduced in an effort to curtail financial panics and protect the U.S. banking system. —Bruce Yandle, Twin Cities, 9 Jan. 2026

The Fed's quantitative easing typically involves buying multiple types of securities, with larger amounts done in Treasuries in order to lower long-term Treasury rates. —Kevin Breuninger,john Melloy, CNBC, 8 Jan. 2026

The government can influence long-term rates through policies such as quantitative easing, where the central bank buys long-term bonds. —Allison Schrager, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025

Incentivizing short-term bonds is similar to the Fed’s quantitative easing. —Tobias Burns, The Hill, 3 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1966, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for quantitative easing

• ceasing
• creasing
• greasing
• leasing
• piecing
• decreasing
• degreasing
• increasing
• policing
• releasing
• unceasing
• nondecreasing