BoE under fire for gilt sell-off
The Bank of England was under fire yesterday from investors when it initiated a sell-off in the gilt market after a £5bn bond deal – one of the biggest government bond offerings of the year. Andrew Sentence, an external member of the Bank’s interest rate-setting monetary policy committee, said that there were possibilities there might be a sustained pause in its injections of cash into the economy through the purchase of government bonds, raising expectations there might be a hold on the quantitative easing programme.