The Bank of England kept monetary policy unchanged today on the three-year anniversary of its historic decision to cut interest rates to a record low and pump money into the British economy.
The rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee held the key interest rate at 0.5%, where it has stood for three years. It also opted against increasing its monetary stimulus programme, which totals £325 billion sterling after February's decision to spend a further £50 billion.
The bank did not issue a statement explaining its decisions. Minutes to the meeting are due to be published on March 21.
In March 2009, when the UK economy was contracting sharply in the wake of a banking crisis and the global credit crunch, the Bank of England cut the main interest rate to its lowest ever and launched a monetary stimulus programme.
Under the programme, which is known as quantitative easing, the bank effectively creates money electronically and uses it to purchase government bonds and other high-grade assets from financial institutions.
The hope is the banks will use the new money to boost lending in the wider economy, supporting growth and preventing a step drop in consumer prices.
Today's decision to keep policy unchanged was widely expected as the British economy has shown signs of getting over its recent soft patch. There are hopes that it will avoid sinking back into recession - officially defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. In the last three months of 2011, the British economy contracted by 0.2%.
The bank has forecast growth of about 1% this year, with governor Mervyn King predicting a "zigzag" pattern of up and down quarters.
The bank has said the economy is vulnerable to external developments such as the euro zone debt crisis, the strength of the economic recovery in the US and the rise in oil prices, which is keeping inflation above the 2% target.
