LONDON: The Bank of England sought to quell the fire-storm in Britain’s bond markets, saying it would buy as much government debt as needed to restore order after new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s tax cutting plans triggered financial chaos.
Having failed to cool the sell-off with verbal interventions over the previous two days, the British central bank announced on Wednesday the immediate launch of an emergency bond-buying programme aimed at preventing the market turmoil from spreading.
“Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability,” the BoE warned.
Since finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng outlined a plan on Friday for tax cuts on top of an energy bill bailout, all funded by a huge increase in government borrowing, UK mortgage markets have frozen, pension funds have dumped gilts and corporate borrowing costs have leapt.
One source at the Treasury said Kwarteng would not resign, and the government would not reverse its policy. A second person familiar with the situation said Truss still backed Kwarteng and they would announce further economic reforms soon.
The BoE will now buy up to 5 billion pounds ($5.31 billion) a day of British government bonds of at least 20 years’ maturity starting on Wednesday and running until Oct. 14.
Its announcement, which represented a sudden reversal of plans to sell bonds it had amassed since the global financial crisis of 2008-9, immediately pushed down borrowing costs.
The 30-year gilt yield was set for its biggest drop in records going back to 1992. The pound pared earlier losses to rise against the dollar. At $1.0860, it was up 1.2% on the day and down 11% in the last three months.
The BoE said it would return to its plan to sell bonds at the end of October.
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