The Bank of England's (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has announced it will keep its monetary policy unchanged after its meeting Thursday.
The central bank held interest rates at 0.50% and its quantitative easing programme at £375bn.
The decision was widely expected by economists including IHS Global Insight's Chief UK & European Economist Howard Archer who said it seems a "stone dead-certainty" that the BoE will maintain its policy.
"Indeed, the markets and analysts will be most likely looking beyond the November MPC meeting and focusing much more on the November Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report which is released on Wednesday 13th."
That will help to shape markets' expectations ahead of the release of the minutes of today's meeting, on November 20th.
Expectations have built up recently that the monetary authority might be looking to modify its economic forecasts so as to incorporate incoming data, which might imply bringing forward the date for the first hike in the main policy rate from the second half of 2016, as currently envisaged by the BoE.
Also, a minority of observers are watching developments in currency markets, particularly given the possibility that the European Central Bank might soon be forced to modify its own policy guidance, which could lead to a further strengthening in sterling.
"With the economic recovery proceeding more quickly than the MPC expected, but little pressure on forward guidance's knockouts, today's decision to leave policy unchanged was probably a unanimous one. But next week's Inflation Report could have a material effect on expectations for the future path of interest rates", Capital Economics told clients this morning.
The central bank held interest rates at 0.50% and its quantitative easing programme at £375bn.
The decision was widely expected by economists including IHS Global Insight's Chief UK & European Economist Howard Archer who said it seems a "stone dead-certainty" that the BoE will maintain its policy.
"Indeed, the markets and analysts will be most likely looking beyond the November MPC meeting and focusing much more on the November Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report which is released on Wednesday 13th."
That will help to shape markets' expectations ahead of the release of the minutes of today's meeting, on November 20th.
Expectations have built up recently that the monetary authority might be looking to modify its economic forecasts so as to incorporate incoming data, which might imply bringing forward the date for the first hike in the main policy rate from the second half of 2016, as currently envisaged by the BoE.
Also, a minority of observers are watching developments in currency markets, particularly given the possibility that the European Central Bank might soon be forced to modify its own policy guidance, which could lead to a further strengthening in sterling.
"With the economic recovery proceeding more quickly than the MPC expected, but little pressure on forward guidance's knockouts, today's decision to leave policy unchanged was probably a unanimous one. But next week's Inflation Report could have a material effect on expectations for the future path of interest rates", Capital Economics told clients this morning.
