Bank of England to ‘look into’ suspected leak of stimulus decision
The Bank of England will “look into” a suspected leak of its monetary policy decision to The Sun newspaper, which correctly reported its decision to pump £150bn into the economy before the BoE officially announced the position.
There is no suggestion that The Sun acted improperly in its reporting of the story, which also said that chancellor Rishi Sunak will extend the furlough scheme past December at an announcement later today.
Under the headline “BANK DISHES OUT ANOTHER £150BN”, this morning’s Sun said the Bank was “expected” to launch £150bn more bond buying. The BoE promptly did so in an announcement at 7am, despite most economists thinking it would only buy £100bn more.
The story was labelled an “exclusive”, but also reported details about what Sunak will say later today. That leaves open the possibility that The Sun simply made an educated guess.
Bailey: ‘I don’t like speculation’
A leak about the Bank of England’s monetary policy is unusual, and would be taken seriously by officials. The decisions are closely guarded because they can lead to big swings in the markets.
Bank of England officials naturally know about the decision before it is made. The Treasury would also be given advanced warning, with a Treasury representative sitting in on meetings.
Speaking to journalists this morning, governor Andrew Bailey said the Bank of England would “look into” the story.
“Obviously, I don’t like seeing speculation about what we’re going to do appearing,” he said. “Yes, we will look into it.”
The Bank has not yet decided whether it will launch a formal inquiry. It declined to comment further.
Threadneedle Street originally planned to announce its decision at midday. However, it moved it forward to avoid clashing with an economic statement from the chancellor. Bailey said it was inevitable this would lead to “speculation”.