Bank of England holds QE and bank rate
UK’s central bank leaves QE programme and bank rate unchanged
The Bank of England has left its quantitative easing (QE) programme and historic bank rate unchanged.
The asset purchasing programme was left at £375bn with the bank rate remaining at 0.5 per cent, where it has been since March 2009.
Last month seven of the nine-member committee voted to boost the QE programme by £50bn, including governor Mervyn King.
The minutes said that those seven members felt that the need for further monetary easing was “compelling”, and even discussed boosting the programme by £75bn.
In a statement released today, the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee said it expected the latest round of QE to take another three months to complete and would keep the scale of the programme under review.
The minutes from the meeting will be released on August 15.