Britain unveils fresh action to calm markets turmoil

LONDON, Oct 10 (AFP): Britain on Monday ramped up efforts to calm markets after a heavily criticised budget, with the government bringing forward key economic forecasts and the Bank of England boosting liquidity.
Finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng will bring forward debt-slashing plans and key predictions after markets chaos sparked by his debt-fuelled budget at the end of September.
Kwarteng revealed he would publish his medium-term fiscal plan alongside the forecasts on October 31 rather than late November.
The news marked another U-turn for the chancellor of the exchequer who had resisted pressure to move the date from November 23.
And it comes after he was forced to abandon a tax cut for the richest earners, in the face of outrage amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Markets have been spooked by the budget from the government of new Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has also unveiled a costly energy price freeze for households and businesses.
The tax and spend plans that are aimed at supporting Britain's recession-threatened economy sent UK bond yields soaring and the pound tumbling to a record low against the dollar.
The Bank of England earlier Monday revealed it was launching a temporary facility aimed at easing liquidity pressures that arose after the budget shocked markets.
The BoE in a statement announced "additional measures to support market functioning".
It added that the central bank was ready to increase the size of its UK government bond purchases under an emergency measure due to end Friday.
The BoE said it was launching a Temporary Expanded Collateral Repo Facility, enabling "banks to help to ease liquidity pressures facing" client funds beyond the end of this week. The budget turmoil triggered the emergency buying of long-dated bonds by the BoE.
The central bank has so far made purchases of so-called gilts totalling around £5 billion ($5.5 billion), far less than its £65-billion limit.