(Bloomberg) -- Mark Carney worked hard to put the Bank of England on the cutting edge of communication. Now that interest rates finally look set to rise, it seems he's been no better at preparing markets than his peers.
The U.K. central bank is widely expected to lift the benchmark rate for the first time in a decade on Thursday. Yet after numerous false starts by the BOE, investors have only recently taken that message on board. When officials suggested in mid-September that an increase was imminent, the pound surged and two-year gilts plummeted.
Read more: Carney's credibility is at stake
Contrast that with the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve. ECB President Mario Draghi left markets serene this month when he announced a scaling back of bond purchases, while Fed Chair Janet Yellen is on track to do exactly what she promised last year and deliver three interest-rate increases in 2017.
The ECB and the Fed have also had their hiccups. The euro jumped when Draghi hinted at a policy change in June, and former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke sparked a taper tantrum -- rising bond yields -- in 2013 when he mentioned that the Fed might start winding down its debt purchases.
But the surprise in U.K. markets comes despite Carney's best efforts to revamp communication since he joined the bank four years ago. He introduced a policy of forward guidance to describe what would prompt officials to act, started publishing minutes of meetings on the same day as decisions, and pledged to make the bank more transparent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Swint in London at bswint@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Fergal O'Brien
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