Key speeches this week

• Last week's MPC meeting did little to change opinions of the future course of monetary policy. There were no major analyst view changes that we saw after the meeting with views split as to whether the MPC will announce a tapering of asset purchases in May or August. The MNI Markets team continues to expect an announcement in May that purchases will be slowed when the final economic restrictions are removed in England (so a slowing of purchases effective from June). For our full BOE review including 16 sell-side summaries, click here.
• This week we will hear from BOE Governor Bailey at least twice as well as Cunliffe but given the settings it is unclear whether they will be able to give any new insights on monetary policy. Speeches on Friday by Saunders "Supply and demand during the pandemic" and Tenreyro's speech at the San Francisco Fed's Macro and Monetary Policy Conference will be closely watched. The Bank did not seem concerned about the impact of rising gilt yields or money market pricing and so it will be interesting to see whether any individual members of the MPC break ranks and state that moves have been unwarranted. Tenreyro in particular has been a strong proponent of the benefits of negative rates and hence is considered probably the most dovish member of the MPC, and so it will be interesting to see if she comments on the fixed income sell-off in her comments this week.

For more see the MNI Gilt Week Ahead.