1st Nov 2018 12:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Bank of England unanimously voted to keep rates on hold on Thursday, though in its last inflation report of 2018 tweaked its forecasts to now see consumer price inflation above target until 2021.
A press conference with BoE Governor Mark Carney will start at 1230 GMT.
The Monetary Policy Committee voted 9-0 to hold Bank Rate at 0.75%, as well as 9-0 to keep stock of purchased assets at GBP435 billion and to keep corporate bond purchases at up to GBP10 billion.
In the UK central bank's quarterly Inflation Report, gross domestic product growth for 2018 was kept at 1.5%, while for 2019 the UK's economic growth forecast was lowered to 1.7% from 1.8%.
For inflation, the forecast consumer price index inflation for 2018 was raised to 2.5% from 2.3% previously, though this is expected to edge down to 2.1% in 2019 from 2.2% forecast before, while the 2020 forecast was raised to 2.1% from 2.0%.
The bank said inflation is now expected to hit the BoE's 2.0% target in 2021, a year later than previously forecast.
Looking ahead, the BoE said the UK's economic outlook will depend "significantly" on the nature of EU withdrawal and the monetary policy response to Brexit, whatever it will be, "will not be automatic and could be in either direction".