UK Borrowing Costs Fall as Bank of England Outlines New Bond-Selling Plan

British government borrowing costs fell on Wednesday after the Bank of England set out a proposal to sell UK bonds back to the government, according to a live report from The Guardian's business desk.

The plan would begin winding down the asset purchase scheme that the Bank launched in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the report said. The scheme, commonly referred to as quantitative easing, involved the Bank buying large quantities of government bonds to support the economy.

According to the report, the Bank of England has faced calls to slow or halt its bond-selling activity, known as quantitative tightening, with critics arguing that the process has added to the cost of UK government borrowing. The Guardian's report referenced criticism describing the financial impact of the Bank's approach as a £120bn bill, and raised questions about accountability for decisions made by the central bank.

Separately, the report noted that the UK's Office for National Statistics released a new measure of productivity showing that annual economic productivity growth since 1997 has been stronger than previously estimated. The revised figures suggest Britain's economy has performed better over that period, spanning back to Tony Blair's first general election victory, than earlier statistics had indicated, per the ONS data cited in the report.

Market movements, including changes in UK government bond yields and the FTSE stock index, were being tracked in real time as part of the ongoing live coverage, according to the source.