BoE Holds Interest Rates, QE Steady

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted Thursday to hold interest rates at 0.5 percent, and made no changes to its asset purchase program, as widely expected.

The MPC voted last month to increase its stock of asset purchases by £50 billion ($79 billion), bringing the total stock of purchases by the bank to £325 billion, or more than 20 percent of Britain's annual gross domestic product.

With the operation scheduled to take place over three months, analysts at Barclays Capital in London said they did not expect the MPC to change its bond purchases program before May.

The British pound moved slightly higher against the dollar by 0.4 percent to $1.5805 after the announcement.