The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%.

The Committee also voted to continue with its programme of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing, totalling £175 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.

The Committee expects the announced programme to take another month to complete, the scale of which will be kept under review.

Commenting on today’s decision, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“Though we are not surprised by the MPC’s decision to keep Bank Rate at 0.5%, we are … Continue Reading

Lending to small businesses rose by £391 million in June, according to the British Banker’s Association, whilst almost 50,000 new small business banking relationships were established. In addition, deposits from small business grew by £577 million.

Commenting on the data, BBA statistics director, David Dooks, said:

“These figures provide more evidence of the high street banks’ support for small businesses. Structured term lending rose by £366 million in June, while deposits and numbers of new business relationships continued to hold up, perhaps reflecting improved business confidence in trading conditions.”

But speaking to the BBC yesterday, Chancellor Alistair Darling said, “I am extremely concerned … Continue Reading