Bank of England Keeps Rate at 0.5 per cent, Quantitative Easing Continues

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today voted to:

• Maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%, which is where it has been since March 5th.
• Continue with its asset purchase programme though the Asset Purchase Facility (APF), aka Quantitative Easing, currently set at £175 billion.

Purchases of almost £146 billion have been made under the APF since its use for monetary policy purposes was first announced after the March meeting.

The Committee expects the announced programme to take another two months to complete. The scale of the programme will be kept under review.

Bank of England: MPC Meeting News Release (10 September 2009).

Bank of England: Information on the Asset Purchase Facility.

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