Bank of England keeps bond buying program unchanged; holds key interest rate at 0.5 percent

Bank of England: no change in bond buying program

LONDON — The Bank of England has kept its main interest rate unchanged at the record low of 0.5 percent and says it will not be asking the government for the authority to pump in more money into the barely recovering British economy.

In a statement Thursday, the central bank says the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep its asset purchase program unchanged at 200 billion pounds ($317 billion).

However, it says it will continue to monitor the scale of the program and could ask the government to make further purchases — the program is primarily designed to boost the money supply in the economy and thereby lower interest rates across lending markets.