News Release
Bank of England Maintains Bank Rate at 0.5% and continues with £175 Billion Asset Purchase Programme
8 October 2009
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to continue with its programme of asset purchases totalling £175 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.
The Committee expects the announced programme to take another month to complete. The scale of the programme will be kept under review.
The minutes of the meeting will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 21 October.
Note to Editors
The previous change in Bank Rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009. A £75 billion programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves was initiated on 5 March 2009. The programme was increased to a total of £125 billion on 7 May 2009 and to a total of £175 billion on 6 August 2009.
Information on the Asset Purchase Facility can be found on the Bank of England website at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetarypolicy/assetpurchases.htm. Purchases of £162 billion have been made under this facility since its use for monetary policy purposes was first announced after the Committee’s March meeting.
