Investing.com – As expected, the Bank of England (BoE) decided on Thursday to keep interest rates unchanged at a record low as well as stand pat on its asset purchase program.
Specifically, the BoE left the benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.25%, in line with market forecasts.
The decision to maintain interest rates was undertaken in a unanimous vote.
Furthermore, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) left its asset purchase program unchanged as expected at £435 billion.
Similarly, the MPC voted unanimously to continue with the program of sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bond purchases totaling up to £10 billion, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.
The Committee also voted unanimously to continue with the program of £60 billion of UK government bond purchases to take the total stock of these purchases to £435 billion, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.
BoE now expects that monetary policy can move in either direction
In the minutes, the BoE indicated that “indicators of activity and business sentiment have recovered from their lows immediately following the referendum and the preliminary estimate of GDP growth in Q3 was above expectations.”
The minutes also showed that, contrary to the prior decision where a majority of members expected the next move to be a further cut in interest rates, the BoE commented that “monetary policy can respond, in either direction, to changes to the economic outlook as they unfold to ensure a sustainable return of inflation to the 2% target.”
Inflation expected to move sharply higher, BoE also increases growth projections
In this light, the BoE’s inflation report showed that the central bank increased its forecast for growth this year to 2.2%, from the prior 2.0%.
For 2017, it increased its projection for economic growth to 1.4%, from the earlier 0.8% estimated.
However, the BoE reduced the forecast for 2018 to 1.5%, from the prior 1.8%.
With regard to price stability, the BoE now sees a sharp spike in inflation with it hitting 2.7% in a year, compared to a prior forecast of 2.0% in the August report.
Furthermore, it expects consumer price inflation to peak at 2.83% in the second quarter of 2018.
Sterling strengthens, FTSE extends losses
In an immediate reaction, the pound moved higher. GBP/USD traded at 1.2477 from around 1.2423 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/GBP was at 0.88866 from 0.8912 earlier, while GBP/JPY traded at 128.78 compared to 128.20 before the report.
Meanwhile, London’s FTSE 100 increased its losses, off 0.71%,
Elsewhere in Europe, the benchmark Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.29%, France's CAC 40 advanced 0.59%, while Germany's DAX inched up 0.03%.
Investors will look ahead to BoE governor Mark Carney’s press conference on the inflation report at 8:30AM GMT (12:30GMT) for further explanations on the future path of U.K. monetary policy.