- Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist
The cable was rather stable on Thursday even despite the U.K. central bank's meeting, as policymakers decided to stay pat on the policy. The Sterling turned lower 0.03% to 1.6707 against the U.S. Dollar, stabilizing above important psychological level of 1.67.
The Bank of England extended its stimulus programme into a sixth straight year as Mark Carney and his team seek to ensure the domestic economy fully recovers from the damage wrought by the deep financial crisis. The benchmark interest rate remained unchanged at 0.5% and the quantitative easing programme at 375 billion pounds, widely meeting analysts' expectations. At the same time, the most recent public speeches and interviews made it clear that MPC members are satisfied with the current course of the monetary policy, with the market expectations for a first rate hike standing for the first half of 2015. Meanwhile, one of the members, Ben Broadbent expressed his view that rates will be revised in the spring of 2015.
The commitment to keep monetary policy at current level was reinforced during the inflation report earlier in February, when Carney once again tried to calm markets down by saying the central bank will stay ultra dovish, even despite the fact the economy is building up steam and the unemployment rate is approaching a 7% threshold faster than it was expected.
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