Bank of England holds off on fresh stimulus for COVID-hit economy

The Bank of England held off from pumping further stimulus into Britain's economy but two of its nine policymakers voted for more bond-buying and the central bank said it was ready to take action to counter the coronavirus hit to the economy.

The BoE said it's Monetary Policy Committee kept Bank Rate at its all-time low of 0.1% and left its target for bond-buying, most of it British government debt, at 645 billion pounds. Both decisions announced on Thursday were in line with the forecasts of most economists in a Reuters poll.

In what it called an illustrative scenario, the BoE said it saw a plunge of 14% in Britain's economy in 2020 followed by a 15% bounce-back in 2021. Such a scenario would require very significant monetary and fiscal stimulus, it said.