The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee voted on Thursday for a widely expected half-point cut in key rates to 1%, the lowest in the Bank’s 315-year history, Financial Times reports.
The move is viewed as a further step on the MPC’s inexorable march towards zero interest rates, although there is considerable debate about whether it ultimately intends to go that far. While the US Federal Reserve has just about hit zero, the European Central Bank has signalled discomfort with that idea.