BOE maintains rate, QE, as widely expected

    The Bank of England (BOE) maintained its benchmark Bank Rate at 0.5 percent, as widely expected, along with the stock of assets purchased by the issuance of central bank reserves at 375 billion pounds.
    The central bank of the United Kingdom, which has kept its rate at technically zero since March 2009, added in a brief statement that minutes of the July 8 meeting would be published on Wednesday July 22.
    This is the last time minutes that minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings will be released separately. Starting from August 6, the BOE will move to a new release schedule in which policy decisions and minutes will be released at the same time.
    With inflation in the U.K. still only at 0.1 percent in May, up from minus 0.1 percent in April, along with uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the Greek crises, the BOE is first expected to start raising rates next year. The BOE targets inflation of 2.0 percent.
    Although an upward revision in first quarter growth data sparked talk that some members of the BOE's Monetary Policy Committee could begin to vote to raise the Bank Rate, Andy Haldane, the chief economist for the BOE warned last month against any rush to raise rates as this could tip the UK back into recession.
    The national statistics office revised upward UK Gross Domestic Product to a rise of 0.4 percent in the first quarter from the fourth quarter from a previous estimate of 0.3 percent and 2014 growth to 3.0 percent from a previous estimate of 2.8 percent.
    On an annual basis, GDP expanded by 2.9 percent in the first quarter, down from 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 while unemployment in April was steady from March at 5.5 percent.

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