BoE to start selling £19bn emergency bond-buying holdings

By end of November

The Bank of England will start selling the assets it purchased during the emergency gilt-buying programme by the end of November.

The central bank attempted to avoid "fire sales" by pension funds following the sell-off sparked by the Mini Budget by purchasing £19.3bn worth of UK government bonds between 28 September and 14 October. This included £7.2bn in index-linked gilts and £12.1bn in long-dated conventional gilts. At the time, the BoE insisted the intervention was a temporary measure to restore orderly market conditions, given that prolonged bond purchases would conflict with the steps officials were taking to fight inflation by raising interest rates.  Yields rise after chancellor replaced and BoE ends gil...