Bank of England sees UK growth surging over 7% this year on Covid vaccine rollout
The BOE’s Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously Thursday to hold interest rates steady and voted 8-1 in favor of maintaining its quantitative easing program at current levels.
The vote means the central bank’s main lending rate remains at an all-time low of 0.1% and its target stock of asset purchases is left unchanged at £895 billion ($1.2 trillion). The central bank said the pace of its government bond purchases “could now be slowed somewhat,” but cautioned this was “as envisaged” in the announcement of the program in November.
The Bank of England said Thursday the U.K. economy is on track for a stronger economic recovery than it previously expected, underpinned by the country’s comparatively quick Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
The BOE upgraded its 2021 growth outlook for the world’s fifth-largest economy to 7.25%, slightly above analyst expectations and up from 5% as forecast in February.
It sees inflation returning to around 2% over the medium term.
The brighter economic forecast comes as the country gradually emerges from lockdown and more people are vaccinated against Covid.
Sterling was up 0.15% against the dollar following the report’s publication, trading at $1.3923.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 gained 1.8% in the previous session to register its best daily performance since mid-February.
Reference: CNBC
Thai
Eng