Bank of England holds interest rates at record-low 0.5pc

The Bank of England said Thursday it had held interest rates at a record-low of 0.5 percent and had so far pumped 26 billion pounds of new money into the economy under ongoing "quantitative easing."
"The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5 percent," the British central bank said in a statement.
"The Committee also voted to continue with the programme, announced on 5 March, of asset purchases totalling 75 billion pounds financed by the issuance of central bank reserves."
The BoE launched a quantitative easing (QE) plan last month to create the new money to buy government bonds from commercial banks in a bid to unblock the credit crunch in Britain's recession-hit economy.
"The Committee noted that since its previous meeting a total of just over 26 billion pounds of asset purchases had been made and that it would take a further two months to complete that programme," the bank added.