BoE holds rates for 50th consecutive month

The Bank of England has held interest rates for the 50th month in a row and opted not to increase the size of its QE programme at its May meeting.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to maintain its asset purchase programme at £375bn, a move that had been widely expected since the UK avoided a triple-dip recession last month. The base rate of interest, meanwhile, has now been held at 0.5% since March 2009, the month in which the Bank first started its quantitative easing programme. Capital Economics said the lack of activity showed the BoE "has limited appetite for helping the economy to break out of its current insipid state". "Upon his arrival in July, Mark Carney may have his work cut out in persuading the Com...