BoE Voted 9-0 To Cut Rates, Print Money

The release of the Bank of England minutes showed that they voted 9-0 to cut their benchmark rate by 0.50% at their last policy meeting. The central bank was also unanimous in deciding to print £75 billion in order to buy government bonds. The MPC said the scale of the purchases needs to target CPI as it still see it at risk for undershooting their 2% target. Policy makers will take its cue from inflation as to when it will end its efforts as they review the appropriate scale of purchases on a monthly basis. The BoE also forecasted that growth in the first quarter could be a dismal as the fourth quarter of 2008 which contracted by 1.5%.