* No change to stimulus, rates seen at Thursday's meeting
* MPC to await outcome of vote for fiscal clarity
By Fiona Shaikh
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - The Bank of England looks set to keep monetary policy on hold on Thursday as rate-setters gauge the impact of their stimulus measures so far and await the outcome of next month's election for more clarity on the fiscal outlook.
The central bank has kept borrowing costs at a record low of 0.5 percent for more than a year and bought 200 billion pounds of government bonds and other assets to get credit flowing again -- measures which are still taking effect.
All 64 analysts in a Reuters poll reckon the Monetary Policy Committee will keep rates steady this month and most think they will stay there until the fourth quarter of this year as Britain slowly recovers from its deepest post-war recession.
The central bank is also seen as unlikely to revive its quantitative easing programme after minutes to last month's meeting showed some policymakers were concerned about inflation pressures.
However, the biggest factor likely to influence monetary policy in the near term is how any future government will tackle a budget deficit of over 11 percent of GDP -- and that will not be clear until long after Britons go to the polls on May 6.
"There is very little prospect of any shift in the stance of monetary policy at Thursday's meeting," said Philip Shaw, economist at Investec.
"Thereafter, the election result, any significant reaction by sterling and later, the resulting stance of fiscal policy will be key determinants in the interest rate outlook."
Opinion polls suggest that neither the ruling Labour party nor the opposition Conservatives will win an overall majority, which could mean weeks of wrangling as they decide how to share power and is the most negative scenario for financial markets.
On the economic front, although data over the past month has been encouraging, it signals only a modest recovery from an 18-month downturn.
The economy grew by 0.4 percent in the final three months of last year, stronger than first thought, but data on Wednesday suggested growth may have petered out in the first quarter of this year, partly because of an unusually harsh winter.
Service sector output, which accounts for two-thirds of total economic output, fell by 0.7 percent in January, while the closely-watched CIPS/Markit services PMI survey showed activity growth slowed in March.
Consumer confidence has also dipped and housing market activity remains subdued, although the labour market seems to be improving.
Policymakers are likely to have been reassured by a sharp slowdown in inflation from January's 14-month high, though at 3 percent in February it remains well above the BoE's 2 percent target.
"There seems little, if any reason for them to adjust monetary policy and several good reasons for them to stay firmly in wait-and-see mode," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, who sees rates staying on hold for the remainder of 2010.
(editing by John Stonestreet)