Quantitative easing has now, truly, gone global. Originally launched in Japan during the early 2000s and adopted in the US and Europe following the 2008 financial crisis, the coronavirus crisis has helped encourage its spread to emerging markets.

About a dozen poorer countries in Africa, Latin America, eastern Europe and south-east Asia have asset purchase programmes to stimulate economies or aid the functioning of bond markets during the pandemic. Most are far smaller than the schemes in Japan, Europe and the US.

There need not be a taboo against emerging markets using QE. The controversial policy — which has often been described as money printing — is riskier for countries that depend on borrowing in foreign currencies from international investors and are already struggling to maintain their confidence. Yet for others, which have often put in the hard work necessary to build pools of domestic capital and confidence in monetary and fiscal authorities, it can be a useful means of stimulating the economy when other options are exhausted.