By Central Bank News
The Bank of England kept its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent and the target for asset purchases at 325 billion pounds, despite a contraction of Britain's economy.
The BOE's official interest rate that it pays on commercial bank deposits has been unchanged at 0.5 percent since March, 2009 when it also began a policy of quantitative easing. On February 9, 2012, the UK central bank increased the asset purchase programme by 50 billion pounds to 325 billion.