Bank of England holds rates

The Bank of England has held the base interest rate at 0.5%.

The historically low rate has been in place since March 2009. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also voted against additional quantitative easing beyond the current £375bn already announced. The minutes of the last MPC meeting, held on 7 and 8 November, reveal David Miles was the only member calling for a boost to the Bank of England's QE programme. Miles was the only one of the nine members to vote for an additional £25bn of QE, which would take the total size of the asset purchase scheme to £400bn. Last month Miles said the Bank still has more QE firepower in its arsenal. ...