The Bank of England on Thursday left its target for asset purchases unchanged (at £ 895 billion) and kept its key rate at a record low of 0.1%. The volume of purchases of corporate bonds worth £ 20 billion also remained unchanged. At the same time, the regulator gave comments on how it will begin to «wean» the economy from generous pandemic support. In particular, the Bank of England intends to reduce its stocks of bonds when the interest rate reaches 0.5%, abandoning reinvestment, and will consider the possibility of actively selling bonds when the rate reaches at least 1%. The regulator's decision was unexpected for market participants, despite the acceleration of inflation after the lockdown was canceled. Inflation in Britain jumped to 2.5% in June, and the central bank in a new set of forecasts said that price increases will accelerate in the coming months, increasingly exceeding the 2% target. Also, according to forecasts, inflation will peak at 4.0% in late 2021-early 2022, which will be the highest in 10 years.
