BoE holds rates at 0.5 pct, makes no change to QE

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Friday September 10, 2010 04:00:11 AM GMT

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The Bank of England kept interest rates at 0.5 percent for the 18th month in a row and announced no new quantitative easing purchases, in a widely expected decision on Thursday.

None of the 60 economists polled by Reuters last week had forecast a change in policy and most do not see interest rates rising until the second quarter of next year at the earliest.

As usual, the central bank issued no statement alongside the policy announcement made following the Monetary Policy Committee's Sept. 8-9 meeting.

When minutes to this month's meeting are published on Sept. 22, many economists expect it to show a repeat of August's discussion, in which Andrew Sentance was the sole policymaker to vote for a rise in rates, as he has been since June.

The BoE cut rates to a record low of 0.5 percent in March 2009 and started buying financial market assets -- mostly gilts -- with newly-created money, a scheme which topped out at 200 billion pounds ($309 billion) at the end of January.

Although British consumer price inflation is well above its 2 percent target at 3.1 percent, last month the BoE forecast it would slow sharply due to slack in the economy, once the effect of past sterling weakness and ongoing sales tax rises fades.

Despite the strongest growth in nine years in the second quarter, the BoE has said growth is likely to slow sharply due to government spending cuts and weak overseas demand.

Britain's goods trade gap widened to largest on record in July, official data released earlier on Thursday showed. [ID:nLDE6880PU] (Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Mike Peacock)

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