BoE unmoved by Fed on QE

The Bank of England today rejected a fresh bout of quantitative easing and kept interest rates on hold for the 20th consecutive month.

All eyes were on the Bank's MPC following the Federal Reserve's decision yesterday to pump some $600bn (£373bn) of fresh funds into the US economy in a bid to kick-start its recovery. Global markets surged following news of the injection - dubbed QE2 - with London's FTSE reaching a seven-month high earlier on Thursday. Higher-than-expected third quarter GDP growth of 0.8%, as well as upbeat manufacturing and house price data, has diminished the case for further QE. Interest rates have been at the historic low of 0.5% since March 2009.