The Bank of England is expected to maintain policy settings with the bank rate left at 0.1% and APF at GBP 895bln. As such, given the significant improvement in the UK outlook amid a successful vaccination program and gradual easing of lockdown measures, the focus for this meeting will be on whether the central bank tapers the pace of weekly gilt purchases, which is currently at GBP 4.4bln. Time to Act or Time to Signal Taper Intention The BoE has already acknowledged that they will have to reduce the weekly pace of asset purchases at some point this year in order to hit the GBP 150bln APF target increase by the end ... (full story)