Bank of England leaves interest rates at record low

Investing.com – As expected, the Bank of England (BoE) decided on Thursday to keep interest rates unchanged at a record low as well as stand pat on its asset purchase program.

Specifically, the BoE left the benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.25%, in line with market forecasts.

The decision to maintain interest rates was undertaken in a unanimous vote.

Furthermore, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also voted unanimously to leave its asset purchase program unchanged as expected at £435 billion.

The MPC also voted unanimously to continue with the program of sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bond purchases totaling up to £10 billion, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.

According to the minutes, the BoE felt that the evidence on the initial impact of the policy package announced in August is encouraging, but promised to closely monitor changes in asset prices and in interest rates facing households and firms and their effect on economic activity.

The MPC also noted that a number of near-term indicators of economic activity had been somewhat stronger than expected.

In an immediate reaction, GBP/USD traded at 1.3242 from around 1.3239 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/GBP was at 0.8487 from 0.8492 earlier, while GBP/JPY traded at 135. compared to 135.63 before the report.

Meanwhile, European stock markets traded with mixed signs. London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.25%, the Euro Stoxx 50 inched down 0.03%, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.11%, while Germany’s DAX traded up 0.20%.

 

Source: Investing.com

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