LONDON (dpa-AFX) - The Bank of England kept its interest rate and quantitative easing unchanged at the latest meeting, on Thursday.
The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, headed by Governor Andrew Bailey, unanimously voted to hold the interest rate at 0.10 percent.
The bank retained the stock of corporate bond purchases at GBP 20 billion and the government bond purchases at GBP 875 billion.
Andrew Haldane voted to continue with the existing programme of UK government bond purchases but to reduce the target for the stock of these purchases to GBP 825 billion from GBP 875 billion.
The minutes showed that one member sought a reduction in the scale of asset purchases in the current programme to GBP 100 billion from GBP 150 billion.
The MPC said the committee did not intend to tighten monetary policy at least until there was clear evidence that significant progress was being made in eliminating spare capacity and achieving the 2 percent inflation target sustainably.
According to the Monetary Policy Report, UK GDP is expected to rise by around 4.25 percent in the second quarter of 2021, as more people are vaccinated and Covid related restrictions ease.
Although inflation is below the 2 percent target, it will rise temporarily above the target towards the end of 2021, owing mainly to developments in energy prices, the bank said. Inflation is projected to return to around 2 percent in the medium term.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2021 AFX News
