Friday, 05 October 2012 09:31
Bank maintains base rate and QE programme
Firms were unsurprised by the Bank of England's decision to hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent and the asset purchase programme at £375bn this week.
Interest rates have been held at this figure since March 2009 while October will be the final month for the latest addition of £50bn in asset purchases to be completed.
Further details of the decision by the Monetary Policy Committee will be given when the minutes of the meeting on 3-4 October are published on 18 October.
Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander UK, said: "The decision to hold rates and quantitative easing today came as no surprise to markets and commentators.
"The latest indicators of economic activity show a mixed picture- stronger for the services sector than for the manufacturing industry. But despite the relative pick up in service sector activity in the past two months, the overall tone of activity indictors shows the pace of underlying economic activity is weak."
Andrew McPhillips, chief economist at Yorkshire Building Society, said: "This month's MPC meeting was widely expected to be a formality in terms of immediate decisions.
"In my view there remains little to no benefit from a cut to the base rate an comments from MPC members outside of the official minutes suggest they still hold this view."
He suggested the committee could be waiting to judge the effect of the Funding for Lending system and let that become the primary tool for stimulus.
Interest rates have been held at this figure since March 2009 while October will be the final month for the latest addition of £50bn in asset purchases to be completed.
Further details of the decision by the Monetary Policy Committee will be given when the minutes of the meeting on 3-4 October are published on 18 October.
Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander UK, said: "The decision to hold rates and quantitative easing today came as no surprise to markets and commentators.
"The latest indicators of economic activity show a mixed picture- stronger for the services sector than for the manufacturing industry. But despite the relative pick up in service sector activity in the past two months, the overall tone of activity indictors shows the pace of underlying economic activity is weak."
Andrew McPhillips, chief economist at Yorkshire Building Society, said: "This month's MPC meeting was widely expected to be a formality in terms of immediate decisions.
"In my view there remains little to no benefit from a cut to the base rate an comments from MPC members outside of the official minutes suggest they still hold this view."
He suggested the committee could be waiting to judge the effect of the Funding for Lending system and let that become the primary tool for stimulus.
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