Britain Central Bank keeps rate at historic low of 0.5%

LONDON – British central bank has decided to keep the benchmark interest rate at historic low of 0.5 percent for March, marking three years since the rate was cut to this level in March 2009.

Economists expect the low rate to be held for at least another year against the ongoing weak economic growth. Meanwhile, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England did not announce an extension of the quantitative easing (QE) program as expected.

Last month, the Bank increased QE size by 50 billion pounds (80 billion U.S. dollars), taking the total stimulus to 325 billion pounds (520 billion dollars). The QE scheme has been criticized by British pension industry. Earlier on Thursday, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) said the scheme depresses yields of government bonds, which is a staple investment for pension funds, and will make the latter pay further 90 billion pounds (144 billion dollars) for future liabilities. (XINHUA)