-BOE Bank Rate Left Unchanged At 0.5%; QE Unchanged At Stg375bn
LONDON (MNI) – The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee
produced no surprises at its August meeting, leaving Bank Rate on hold
at 0.5% and maintaining its quantitative easing programme at stg375
billion and issuing no policy statement.
The MPC said that they expected the current round of asset
purchases to take another three months to complete, which would take
them up towards the November meeting. The BOE also said that it would
keep the scale of the QE programme under review.
The BOE’s decision to hold Bank Rate at its record low level and to
maintain QE at stg375billion comes as no suprise. An MNI survey
conducted prior to the meeting found just two analysts expecting any
change in policy at the MPC’s August meeting.
While the MPC was widely tipped to keep policy on hold at its
August meeting, the survey also showed that a majority of analysts
expect the committee will sanction another round of QE at its November
meeting.
The MPC members would have know the key forecasts of the BOE’s
August Inflation Report at the meeting, with analysts expecting the
central projection to show CPI heading markedly below the 2% target.
The BOE has launched a raft of credit easing measures, including
the Funding for Lending Scheme which only became active yesterday.
–London newsroom: 4420 7862 7492 email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$$BE$,MT$$$$]
