LONDON, Aug 18 Reuters The Bank of England set out plans on Thursday to auction off around 200 million pounds 241 million of corporate bonds a week from next month, as it moves ahead with its plans to unwind its huge stimulus push of recent years.

The BoE bought nearly 20 billion pounds of investmentgrade bonds from nonfinancial companies under its quantitative easing programme to support the economy and stabilise financial markets after the 2016 Brexit referendum and in the COVID19 pandemic.

The BoE39;s Monetary Policy Committee announced in February that it had asked bank staff to design a programme of corporate bond sales that would be completed no earlier than around the end of 2023. The BoE said in May that it aimed to complete the sales by early 2024.

The sales will be gradual and responsive to prevailing market conditions, consistent with the MPC39;s instructions to limit disruption to the functioning of the sterling corporate bond market, the BoE said on Thursday.

The sales from the BoE39;s stockpile of corporate debt are separate to its plans to reduce its 844 billion pounds of government bond holdings by 80 billion pounds over the next year, with further reductions in subsequent years.

Under that plan, the BoE will continue to not reinvest maturing gilts and will sell around 40 billion pounds of gilts in the 12 months from September.

The BoE39;s corporate bond holdings include sterling debt from companies such as Apple, EDF and Volkswagen.

Last year,…