UK interest rates kept on hold at 0.5%

UK interest rates have been kept on hold at the record low of 0.5%, after the Bank of England's latest meeting.

The Bank also decided not to pump any more money into the UK economy under its policy of quantitative easing (QE).

Interest rates have now been at 0.5% since March 2009, and analysts do not expect any rate rises soon while the economy continues its recovery.

The UK emerged from recession in the final quarter of last year, after six consecutive quarters of contraction.

The latest official figures show that the economy grew by 0.4% in the last three months of 2009, and recent surveys have indicated that the economy has continued to grow.

Earlier on Thursday, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that UK manufacturing output rose by 1.3% in February, after a 1% drop in January when output was hit by the snowy weather.

Separately, the latest growth estimate from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said that the UK economy grew by 0.4% in the first three months of the year.

Posted at 07:49PM Apr 08, 2010 by Kelly Board in The Economy  |  Comments[0]