BoE increases QE to £875bn but avoids negative interest rates

Unanimous vote

The Bank of England (BoE) has voted unanimously to increase its purchase of UK government bonds by £150bn and to maintain rates at 0.1%, shunning rumours of a move towards negative interest rates.

A rise of £150bn brings the central bank's quantitative easing programme to a total of £875bn, while it also voted unanimously to maintain its corporate bond purchasing programme at £20bn. Fund managers confident lockdown will not lead to second wave of dividend cuts The increased monetary easing was justified by the bank as a method to "support the economy and help to ensure that the unavoidable near-term slowdown in activity was not amplified by a tightening in monetary conditions that could slow the return of inflation to the [2%] target". Following a 4 November Monetary Policy ...