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MPC leaves rates at historic low of 0.5% but increases QE programme to £125bn
The Bank of England's monetary policy committee left interest rates at a historic low of 0.5% today – but said it would increase the size of its quantitative easing operations by £50 bn to £125 bn.
The pound had reached near four-month highs against both the dollar and euro in the run-up to the announcement on growing confidence that the worst might be over for the UK economy.
But it shed some of its gains after the announcement from the Bank. The MPC said there were "promising signs" in forward-looking surveys that the pace of decline in the British economy might be slowing, but added that weak global demand and the continuing restructuring by British banks would act as a drag on any recovery for a long time to come.
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