欧元、英镑利率降至新低

Interest rates were cut to historic lows across Europe yesterday as central banks struggled to drag the region's economies out of recession.

The European Central Bank reduced official borrowing costs for the eurozone by another half percentage point to 1.5 per cent, its lowest rate since the euro was launched in 1999, as it took a sharply gloomier view on Europe's recession and forecast exceptionally weak inflation.

In the UK, the Bank of England lowered rates by the same amount, taking them to 0.5 per cent, the lowest rate since the Bank was created in 1694.

The BoE conceded it had run out of ammunition with conventional policy and started a large programme of quantitative easing – creating money to buy assets – in an effort to prevent deflation.

The Bank will from the middle of next week create money and purchase UK government bonds in a £75bn programme that represents 5 per cent of national income. The purchases, predominantly of medium and long-dated gilts but also including corporate bonds, will take place over three months.