BOE’s Hands Aren’t Tied by Emergency Bond Buys, Mann Says

The Bank of England’s decision to commence its program of bond sales next month shows the Monetary Policy Committee doesn’t feel its “hands are tied” by the recent emergency buying of long-dated debt, Catherine Mann said.

Those purchases were “very targeted and temporary” to prop up the market and the central bank “worked exactly the way it’s supposed to,” she told an event in Cambridge on Saturday. Bond sales were initially due to begin on Oct. 3 but were delayed after the market panic surrounding Liz Truss’s economic plans. The initial run will now exclude longer-dated securities.