British central bank continues to keep interest rate at record low

Britain's central bank on Thursday kept the short-term interest rates unchanged at a record low 0.5 percent and the scale of the its asset purchases programme at 200 billion pounds (314 billion U.S. dollars).

The Bank of England (BOE) said in a statement its Monetary Policy Committee voted to maintain the official bank rate paid on commercial bank reserves and the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.

The BOE made the decision as the British economy slowly recovers from a deep recession.

According to the British government, gross domestic product (GDP)increased by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 over previous quarters. However, it was still 3.3 percent lower than the fourth quarter of 2008.

The BOE cut its interest rates to a historical-low of 0.5 percent in March of 2009 in an attempt to boost the recession-hit economy.

Source: Xinhua