Investing.com - The Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged in March and announced no change to its asset purchase facility program, it said on Thursday.
The BoE said it was maintaining the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, in a widely expected move. The bank also said it was to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at GBP375 billion.
The minutes of the meeting of the central bank’s monetary policy committee will be published on Wednesday, March 19.
Following the announcement, the pound held on to modest gains against the U.S. dollar, with GBP/USD easing up 0.03% to trade at 1.6726.
Meanwhile, European stock markets remained higher. London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.25%, the EURO STOXX 50 added 0.65%, France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.65%, while Germany's DAX tacked on 0.3%.