Is it in the BoE interests to have a low pound at the moment...continuing with Brexit means Brexit bringing interest rates down and Quantative Easing is all having a negative effect on the value of the £,the following would suggest that this is attractive to the government,maybe that reduces the government debt.?
The Bank of England has successfully procured £1.17BN worth of Gilts with maturity of 3-7 years - the success has pushed down Gilt yields and the GBP alongside.
- The Pound to Euro exchange rate today: 1.1509
- The Pound to Dollar exchange rate today: 1.2884
- The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate today: 1.6796
- The Pound to Canadian Dollar exchange rate today: 1.6647
Sterling has crashed yet lower against its G10 rivals with a fall below 1.29 in GBP/USD catching the eye.
A decline below 1.15 against the Euro now also looks to be on the cards.
The declines come as the Bank of England successfully purchases £1.17BN worth of government bonds (Gilts) with a maturity set between 3 and 7 years.
The auction took place between 2:15-2:45PM and saw the Bank find no shortage of offers:
- Total offers received: Stg 4,140.8mn
- Total offers accepted: Stg 1,169.8mn
- The cover ratio in the competitive auction was therefore 3.54
In the operation overall, total offers accepted, in terms of total proceeds,
were Stg 1,169.8mn
As a result, the yields on those Gilts remain near record lows.
This in turn diminishes currency inflows as global investors opt to seek yield elsewhere in the world, thereby placing downward pressure on the UK currency.
The biggest driver of Sterling over the course of the past seven days has been, without doubt, the
Bank of England's actions in the Gilt markets.
We believe that the Bank's actions, as well as the notable economic data docket available, will be the main driver of Sterling valuations over the course of the next five days.
August has brought with it the commencement of the BoE's quantitative easing programme - the process whereby the Bank is looking to suck up £60BN in government bonds from the open markets.
The move, it is hoped,
will force down the cost of borrowing in the economy, thereby stimulating investment.
A strong desire by the likes of pension funds to offload bonds to the government was seen last week,
and the Pound fell as expected.
However, eyebrows were raised on Tuesday the 9th when the Bank was unable to find enough sellers to fulfil its mandate.
The operation sought to buy longer-dated Gilts than those purchased on Monday the 15th. The Bank will take another stab at Gilts with similar yields on Tuesday the 16th, which should provide some interest.
The Pound rose in response to the failure, as any failures to execute the quantitative easing programme suggests the Bank may think twice about extending it in the future.
“While the BoE’s planned QE purchases failed to elicit sufficient willing sellers on only the second day, raising the prospect of implementation challenges, gilt yields were pushed down to record lows, a sign that the policy for now appears to be achieving the intended result,” says Michael Sawicki at
Lloyds
KudosDave