Bank Base Rate remains at 0.5%
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%.
The Committee also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £200 billion.
The base rate has not changed for over 12 months with the last change on 5 March 2009 with a reduction of 0.5 percentage points from 1.0% to 0.5%.
A programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves was initiated on 5 March 2009. The most recent change in the size of that programme was an increase of £25 billion to a total of £200 billion on 5 November 2009.
With the timing of the General Election the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting will conclude on the morning of Monday 10 May, with the decision announced at 12 noon. The Inflation Report will be published as originally scheduled on Wednesday 12 May.
Information on the Asset Purchase Facility can be found on the Bank of England website at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetarypolicy/assetpurchases.htm.
The Bank will continue to purchase high-quality private sector assets on behalf of the Treasury and financed by the issue of Treasury bills, in line with the arrangements announced on 29 January 2009.
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