Thursday's MPC meeting could be a non-event
Thursday's meeting of the MPC at the Bank of England is likely to be a non-event in relation to UK base rates which seem almost certain to remain at 0.5%. However, as we covered in one of our recent posts there is growing speculation that the UK government will be asked to increase the quantitative easing budget by a further £25 billion as the initial £125 billion ceiling is about to be breached.
A number of economists are of the understanding that the Bank of England is looking to put aside enough capital to continue the quantitative easing program through to next month's MPC meeting where a whole raft of reports from the second quarter of 2009 will be available. This will give the bank more scope to consider and evaluate these reports which many believe will show that the UK economy has bottomed out and is starting to form a base from which growth should come in 2009/2010.
However, it was interesting to see that the Bank of England has been one of the more downbeat commentators of late regarding the UK economy. Whether this particular strategy will change after the figures for the second quarter of 2009 are available remains to be seen but caution appears to be the watchword from the "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street".
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