Bank of England Holds Rates Steady

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England voted Thursday to hold interest rates paid on commercial bank reserves unchanged at 0.5%. Members of the committee also voted not to make any changes in the bank’s quantitative easing program, which is currently set at 200 billion pounds $317 billion). The QE policy has been in place since February.

According to a Reuters report, England’s economic outlook has not changed much since the meeting of the committee in November; its consumer price inflation has increased from its 2% target to 3.2%. Manufacturing activity has been strong, and overall economic growth has been strong at 0.8% in Q3.