LONDON (MNI) – The Bank of England left its stock of asset
purchases unchanged today at stg325bn and the Bank Rate also unchanged
at 0.5% following the latest two-day meeting of its Monetary Policy
Committee.
The Bank noted that the current programme would take another month
to complete and that the scale of the programme would be kept under
review.
Analysts were united in expecting no change to BOE policy settings
at the meeting, although analysts are somewhat more split over whether
the committee will extend QE when they meet at the more pivotal May
meeting, when new, draft Inflation Report forecasts will be available to
the MPC.
Since the BOE’s decision to increase quantitative easing by stg50bn
in February, a number of members of the MPC have signalled that further
increases in asset purchases are unlikely, barring a significant
deterioration in the economic outlook. However, Adam Posen and David
Miles backed stg25bn more QE at the March meeting.
–London newsroom: tel: +4420 7862 7492 email:ukeditorial@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$$BE$,MT$$$$]
