The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has once again kept interest rates on hold at 0.5% and left QE unchanged at £275bn, but the European Central Bank has cut rates back to their historic low of 1%.
UK rates have remained at 0.5% since the last cut in March 2009. The MPC, which was widely expected to keep rates unchanged for the 33rd month in a row, last increased the size of its quantitative easing programme to £275bn back in October. The Bank said it expects the current bout of QE to take another two months to complete. Meanwhile, the quarter-point cut in Europe comes amid ongoing fears of the eurozone and ahead of a key summit of EU leaders in Brussels. The ECB is also thought to be preparing a bailout for the Italian government.
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