Bank of England to start selling UK government bonds on 1 November

Brings end to temporary QE

The Bank of England will start selling assets on 1 November as it gets ready to end the quantitative easing programme that saw it accumulate about £850bn in government bonds, it announced in a statement on Tuesday (18 October).

The BoE will start selling stock of British government bonds, but will not sell any longer-duration gilts this year. Instead, sales in 2022 will be in short- and medium-maturity sectors, of bonds up to 20 years.  30-year gilts, one of the longest-dated UK government bonds, were at the centre of the recent sell-off and concerns about the pensions industry, which led the Bank to implement an emergency purchasing programme. BoE responds to Treasury Committee on expanded emergency bond buying In order to avoid conflicting with a government fiscal statement on October 31, the central ba...