BOE Leaves All Policy Measures Unchanged – GBP Hardly Moves

No surprises from the BOE: all policy measures were left unchanged and with a unanimous vote on everything. Carney and co. are more optimistic about the economy, basically catching up with reality. They say that their actions are working well. Is the economy doing better thanks to the monetary stimulus package or regardless of? This is an open, political question.

GBP/USD hardly reacted to the news at first, but later slid to lower ground. The late move seems more related to the dollar part of the equation, ahead of key US data.

The Bank of England was expected to leave all policy measures unchanged. This means an interest rate of 0.25%.

Live Blog – as it happened

Last Update : 2016/09/15 13:47

13:47 GBP/USD suffering a late fall - under 1.32

13:22 Voting was unanimous 9:0 on all accounts

Total agreement all around

13:06 The full minutes

13:05

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) sets monetary policy to meet the 2% inflation target and in a way that helps to sustain growth and employment. At its meeting ending on 14 September 2016, the MPC voted unanimously to maintain Bank Rate at 0.25%. The Committee voted unanimously to continue with the programme of sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bond purchases totalling up to £10 billion, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves. The Committee also voted unanimously to continue with the programme 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. The package of measures announced by the Committee at its August meeting led to a greater than anticipated boost to UK asset prices. Short and long-term market interest rates fell notably following the announcement; corporate bond spreads narrowed, and issuance was strong; and equity prices rose. Since then, some of the falls in yields have reversed, driven by somewhat stronger-than-expected UK data and a generalised rise in global yields. Many banks announced cuts in Standard Variable Rate and Tracker mortgage rates in line with the cut in Bank Rate. Deposit rates fell in August, although on average these falls were slightly smaller than the cut in Bank Rate. Fixed rates on new mortgage lending also fell. Overall, while the evidence on the initial impact of the policy

13:04 GBPUSD reaction to the BOE decision