Thursday August 6, 12:22 PM
RPT-BoE raises QE total to 175 bln stg, holds rates
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The Bank of England extended its
quantitative easing programme on Thursday, raising the size of
its bond purchase scheme to an unexpectedly large 175 billion
pounds from 125 billion, and held interest rates at 0.5 percent.
The decision enables the central bank to continue its
programme of asset purchases with newly created money -- which
it started in March to boost Britain's recession-hit economy --
as the last of the 125 billion pounds was spent in late July.
'The Committee expects the announced programme to take
another three months to complete. The scale of the programme
will be kept under review,' it said in a statement.
Economists had been evenly split on whether the BoE would
choose effectively to print more money to buy assets such as
government bonds and corporate debt. None had expected a change
in Britain's record-low interest rates.
The BoE has received approval from Britain's finance
ministry for the extra money. When the BoE launched QE with an
initial 75 billion pounds in March, the finance ministry had
allowed it to create up to 150 billion pounds of new money.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by David Stamp)
Keywords: BRITAIN BANK/RATES
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