BOE confirms Brexit project after e-mail mistake

London

THE Bank of England (BOE) plans to assess the implications of a possible British exit from the European Union, it said in a statement, confirming an e-mail that it inadvertently sent to a newspaper about the supposedly confidential research project.

The Guardian reported that an aide to a senior BOE official said in the e-mail that the project should be kept secret from most BOE staff, and any journalists asking about it should be told that the Bank was looking at a broad range of European economic issues. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was re-elected on May 7, has pledged to reshape Britain's ties with the EU before holding an in-out membership referendum by the end of 2017.