Bank of England decides against pumping extra cash into economy

RATE-setters held off from further help to ease the recession today after a surprise refusal to pump extra cash into the economy.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had been widely expected to expand its quantitative easing (QE) programme – effectively printing money – by £25 billion to £150 billion.

But the scale of the operation was left unchanged at £125 billion, while interest rates were held at their current 0.5% record low for the fourth month in a row.

The decision comes despite concerns over the fragility of recent signs of stabilisation in the economy following a steep decline.

Manufacturing output showed a surprise fall in May, while official figures have shown a far worse than expected 2.4% slump in overall GDP in the first three months of 2009 – the worst in more than 50 years.