BoE holds fire on QE as data improves

The Bank of England has opted not to implement further quantitative easing and held interest rates at 0.5% for the 49th consecutive month.

The Bank left the size of its asset purchase programme unchanged at £375bn on a day that better-than-expected services data added weight to hopes the UK will avoid a triple-dip recession. The services purchasing managers index (PMI) reading for March came in at 52.4, above both February's 51.8 mark and the 51.5 reading that had been expected by economists. That points to Q1 2013 GDP growth of 0.1%, according to data provider Markit, following on from the 0.3% contraction seen in Q4 2012. Capital Economics' UK economist Samuel Tombs expects further easing later this year but noted t...