The Bank of England Minutes showed that the MPC voted unanimously to hold the benchmark interest at the record-low of 0.50%, and agreed to continue its asset purchase program as Europe’s second largest economy faces a deepening recession. The central bank said that ‘the initial effects of the committee’s asset purchase program had been encouraging,’ while policymakers remained uncertain about the spillover effects that could possibly undermine the outlook for long-term stability. The BoE said that ‘it was difficult to know if the falls in yields would persist once the 75 billion pound program of purchases was complete,’ and stated that ‘though there remained a high degree of uncertainty over the appropriate scale of asset purchases necessary to keep inflation at target in the medium term.’ Meanwhile, the central bank said that economic activity in the first quarter is falling at ‘a similar rate’ that we’ve seen at the end of last year, and continued to hold a dour outlook for price growth as they said ‘inflation still seemed likely to fall below the target by the second half of the year.’