Bespoke Mortgages

Insider's View

4th June 2009

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has decided to hold the base rate at 0.5% for the third month in a row.

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The MPC has also voted to continue with its £125bn asset purchase programme, or quantitative easing.

It expects the programme to take another two months to complete and says the scale of the purchases is to be kept under review.

With little room for manoeuvre in cutting interest rates, all eyes were on whether the Bank would want to extend its programme of quantitative easing beyond the £150bn limit agreed with the Treasury.

Commentators had forecast that the central bank may request more money to play with in an attempt to boost the money supply.