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BoE to announce more stimulus Thursday

Britain’s BoE is set to keep its key interest rate at a record-low 0.50 percent — where it has stood for more than three years — and agree to pump out another £50 billion ($78 billion, 62 billion euros) in fresh cash, analysts said.

The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee has so far pumped the economy with £325 billion under its Quantitative Easing (QE) stimulus policy since March 2009, when it also slashed its key rate to its all-time low level.

“The odds strongly favour the Bank of England returning to Quantitative Easing at the conclusion of the Monetary Policy Committee’s July meeting on Thursday after halting the programme in May and June,” said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at the IHS Global Insight consultancy.

“Latest economic data and survey evidence have been weaker and disappointing overall, increasing the risk that the economy suffered further contraction in the second quarter.”

Analysts added that the BoE would unveil more QE because British inflation was falling and owing to eurozone debt concerns despite last week’s EU summit deal aimed at further tackling the bloc’s crisis.

Though not a member of the eurozone, Britain relies heavily on the area for the day-to-day trading of its goods and services.

Also on Thursday, the European Central Bank is forecast to cut it main lending rate from it current record-low level of 1.0 percent.

“The continued deterioration in economic data in the UK and Europe is likely to see both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank ease monetary policy further at their respective monthly meetings,” said Michael Hewson, senior analyst at trading group CMC Markets UK.

“At the end of last year in response to fears about the health of the UK economy the Bank of England restarted its asset purchase scheme by £75 billion in an attempt to help support the overall economy.

“Since then the economy has continued to falter... which has prompted calls for further measures to help stimulate demand and get banks to lend money into the economy in an attempt to support growth.”

Under QE, the bank creates new cash to purchase assets such as government and corporate bonds with the aim of boosting lending and economic output.