[The Bank of England took another step towards
controversial negative rates on Thursday amid
rising Covid infections and a looming unemployment crisis.
The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
unanimously voted to hold interest rates at their
record low of 0.1pc and kept the scale of its
money printing programme unchanged at £745bn.
However, minutes of the meeting said the MPC
had been briefed on the Bank's plans
“to explore how a negative Bank Rate could
be implemented effectively, should the outlook
for inflation and output warrant it at some point”.
The Bank of England and the Prudential
Regulation Authority “will begin structured
engagement on the operational
considerations” of the move in the
final quarter, the minutes said.
Major central banks including the Bank of Japan,
the Swiss National Bank and
the European Central Bank have already
taken rates below zero, although retail
depositors have been shielded.]
From Friday Telegraph.
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