Bank of England: No change in rates, stimulus

[June 07, 2012]  LONDON (AP) -- The Bank of England has kept its base interest rate at the all-time low of 0.5 percent and has not approved any additional monetary stimulus.

Thursday's announcement from the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee means the stimulus program of asset purchases remains at a total of 325 billion pounds ($524 billion).

With the U.K. economy officially in recession after two quarters of shrinking GDP, analysts had suggested that the committee may have chosen to approve additional stimulus.

Howard Archer, European economist at IHS Global Insight, said "it may well have been a very close call," given Britain's sluggish economic growth.

[Associated Press]

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