Investing.com - The Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged in December and announced no change to its asset purchase facility program, it said on Thursday.
The BoE said it was holding the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, in a widely expected move.
The central bank also said it was to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.
The minutes of the meeting of the central bank’s monetary policy committee will be published on Wednesday, December 17.
Minutes of the central bank's November policy meeting showed that Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty voted for a 0.25% hike in the benchmark rate to 0.75% for the fourth consecutive meeting.
GBP/USD was trading at 1.5678 from around 1.5680 ahead of the announcement, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7851 from 0.7849 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were mildly higher. London’s FTSE 100 tacked on 0.1%, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 picked up 0.55%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.5%, while Germany's DAX advanced 0.6%.