UK base rates remain unchanged
The monetary policy committee of the Bank of England has today confirmed that UK base rates will remain at 0.5% for the foreseeable future. It has also been announced that the quantitative easing fund will be increased by £25 billion to £200 billion which should see the program through until February 2010. What will happen after February 2010 will very much depend on how buoyant the UK economy is at the time and what else needs to be done. So is this enough?
While the £25 billion increase in the quantitative easing fund was less than expected, one of the main concerns which many UK economists have at the moment is the fact that the UK government does not appear to have a "plan B". Despite the fact that the UK economy is not responding in a manner that many had expected, the UK government is still determined to push through with an ever increasing quantitative easing program and keep UK base rates as low as possible.
There is no doubt that at some stage this additional funding will kick in and help the UK economy pull away from the recession but there is concern about how long this could take.
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