8 January 2010
The Bank of England kept the scale of its asset purchase programme unchanged at 200 billion pounds and said it would decide whether or not to extend it next month. Britain's central bank also left interest rates at a record-low 0.5 percent, a decision which had been unanimously expected and caused no reaction from sterling or British government bonds. Next month, the Monetary Policy Committee will have new quarterly growth and inflation forecasts, as well as official data which is expected to confirm the British economy ended a year-and-half of recession in the last three months of 2009. This likely return to growth means most economists doubt the BoE will further expand the asset-buying policy though past policy surprises mean few will completely rule it out. The BoE made no statement about the economy in an announcement after its monthly policy meeting, which as in December simply said the MPC would review the scale of quantitative easing at February's meeting once existing funds had been spent.