Bank of England Maintains Rate at 0.5%

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5%.

It has kept the key borrowing rate at that level since March 2009.

The MPC also said it would make no change to the £375bn of monetary stimulus it is providing through its quantitative easing (QE) programme.

Last month, BoE governor Mark Carney said the central bank would not consider raising interest rates until the unemployment rate fell below 7%.

That announcement is part of Mr Carney’s policy of giving forward guidance.

The idea is to create more certainty for businesses and individuals about the course of interest rates, which may encourage borrowing and investment.

He forecast that it would take about three years for unemployment to reach his target.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza