The Bank of England to reduce gilt holding by £80bn GBP Sterling reversed some of its recent losses against both the euro and US dollar on Thursday rallying by 1% following the Bank of England’s recent intervention in the bond market. According to the BoE, the central bank will keep its goal to reduce its £838bn of gilt holding by £80bn over the next year, but would postpone the start of sales due to begin next week. Furthermore, Sterling found some additional respite from data released this morning which showed GDP figures for Q2 quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year both surpassing market expectations. The former rebounded from a 0.1% contraction to show 0.2% growth whilst the latter showed growth of 4.4% compared to 2.9% previous. Key announcements 10:00 – EUR – HICP (YoY) (Sep) expected 9.7%
