BOE’s Messaging Under Fire as Hawkish Pivot Fuels Bond Rout

The Bank of England’s revamp of its communication policy to include the views of individual rate setters is getting criticized by market analysts on concerns it helped fuel a selloff in UK bonds.

The central bank’s statement on Thursday included comments from each of the nine-member policy committee, showing that officials previously pushing for interest-rate cuts are now considering hikes. That fanned the slide in gilts, according to analysts at Citigroup Inc. and Bank of Montreal, with benchmark yields surging further on Friday to the highest since 2008.