THE Bank of England yesterday held UK base rates at 0.5% and maintained the scale of its quantitative easing programme at £375 billion, as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlighted the grim economic backdrop.
Members of the Bank's nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee, chaired by Sir Mervyn King, made their no-change decision hours after the OECD forecast UK output would tumble by 0.7% this year.
MPC members have signalled they wish to gauge the effect of the Bank and UK Government's £80bn Funding for Lending scheme, providing funds to banks at below-market rates, in the hope this will support lending to businesses and households.
We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.
Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.
