Bank of England holds key rate at 0.50%, QE unchanged at £375B

The Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged in May and announced no change to its asset purchase facility program, it said on Thursday.

The minutes of the meeting of the central bank’s monetary policy committee will be published on Wednesday, May 21.The BoE said it was maintaining the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, in a widely expected move. The bank also said it was to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.

Following the announcement, the pound held on to modest gains against the U.S. dollar, with GBP/USD easing up 0.12% to trade at 1.6973.

Meanwhile, European stock markets remained higher. London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5%, the Euro Stoxx 50 added 0.6%, France’s CAC 40advanced 0.6%, while Germany's DAX tacked on 0.4%.