The U.K.’s central bank on Thursday kept its monetary policy stance unchanged as much of the country enters the festive period under the highest tier of coronavirus restrictions. The Bank of England kept its main lending rate at 0.1 percent, having cut twice from 0.75 percent since the onset of the pandemic in March, and retained its target stock of asset purchases at £895 billion (US$1.2 trillion), CNBC reportsAt its last meeting in November, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to expand its bond buying as England entered a month-long national lockdown amid a resurgence in Covid-19 cases. In Thursday’s report, the MPC noted that the successful trialing and initial rollout of vaccines was likely to reduce the downside risk to the economic outlook identified in November. “Nevertheless, recent global activity has been affected by the increase in Covid cases and associated re-imposition of restrictions,” the report said. “U.K.-weighted global GDP growth in 2020 in the fourth quarter is likely to be a little weaker than expected at the time of the November Report.”

Source: The Standard December 17, 2020 12:33 UTC