Bank keeps rates at 0.5%

In a widely expected move, the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) decision to keep rates at historical lows comes on the back of a spate of downbeat economic data. Today's decision marks the 26th consecutive month rates have remained unchanged. The Bank also kept its quantitative easing programme at £200bn. Shortly before the MPC released its decision, the FTSE 100 was down 0.8% to 5933 and following the announcement the index dropped to 5922, down 1%. Disappointing GDP growth figures for Q1 - which showed the economy grew just 0.5% after a 0.5% contraction in Q4 - along with negati...