Bank of England keeps interest rates at 0.5 pct 

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency - Arabic) Bank of England policymakers decided against unleashing further emergency support for the recovery today despite mixed signs over the health of the economy.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) maintained interest rates at record lows of 0.5% and held its quantitative easing (QE) stock at 375 billion pound as it continues to work through 50 billion pound of asset purchases announced last July.

The no-change decision will increase focus on next month's meeting, at which most economists expect the Bank to pump more cash into the system through its QE programme.

Anna Leach, CBI head of economic analysis, said to BBC: "Looking ahead to November's meeting, we think that the committee is likely to favour further asset purchases. While there have been a few positive signs in recent data, underlying conditions remain relatively flat.

"Meanwhile, uncertainty around the international backdrop is likely to build further through the autumn, keeping confidence in check."

This month's interest rate meeting comes after a run of disappointing purchasing manager surveys in manufacturing, construction and services, suggesting a once-expected rebound to growth in the third quarter is far from guaranteed.

Manufacturing output shrank at a faster pace in September than the previous month, construction output also declined and the services industry saw its rate of growth slow down.

But Bank governor Sir Mervyn King insisted just last week that there were "a few signs" of recovery while official figures revealed a second upward revision to gross domestic product for the second quarter to a better-than-feared decline of 0.4%.

And last week's retail figures from the CBI showed a welcome rise in sales for this month after a disappointing August performance.

The bank will also be watching its funding for lending programme closely to see whether further QE is needed, with early encouraging signs of its scheme to free up the log-jam in lending.

It recently revealed that 13 banks and building societies have signed up and it is seeing tentative signs that credit is being boosted