By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- The Bank of England cut its key interest rate to 0.1% from 0.25% on Thursday and increased the scope of its bond-buying program, ramping up its efforts to contain the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bank said it would increase its purchases of government and investment grade corporate bonds by 200 billion pounds ($230 billion) to 645 billion pounds.
"The majority of additional asset purchases will comprise UK government bonds," the bank said in a statement. "The purchases announced today will be completed as soon as is operationally possible, consistent with improved market functioning."
In addition, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee also agreed to increase the size of the term funding program, a backstop for business lending, that it announced last week.
The pound, which hit a new 35-year low of $1.1475 earlier on Thursday, recovered to $1.1663, up 0.5% on the day. Against the euro, it was up 1.7% at 1.0814.