Bank of England’s wait-and-see approach unlikely to calm nerves

The Bank of England’s message was that the markets could wait until the next meeting of the MPC. Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters

After a day of wild speculation in the City of London that left the pound in apparent freefall, the Bank of England had little choice but to break its usual silence on day-to-day currency market movements.

Sterling had plunged overnight in Asia to its lowest level in history against the US dollar, in a punishing verdict on Kwasi Kwarteng’s £45bn of unfunded tax cuts announced last week.