Bank Of England, Or BOE, Keeps Key Bank Rate And Asset-Purchase Program Unchanged, In Line With Expectations

The Bank of England, or BoE, on Thursday decided to leave its key bank rate unchanged at 0.5 percent, and kept its asset-purchase program constant, in line with expectations.

The Monetary Policy Committee, or MPC, voted to maintain the stock of purchased assets financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at 375 billion pounds ($627 billion), according to the statement from the BoE. The minutes of the MPC's meeting will be published on March 19.

The previous change to the Bank Rate was a cut of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5 percent, which was made on March 5, 2009. The bank’s asset-purchase program, also known as quantitative easing, which also began in March 2009, was last changed in July 2012, when it was increased by 50 billion pounds to the current total of 375 billion pounds.

The FTSE 100 index was trading up 0.23 percent after the announcement.