The Bank of England avoids 'last resort' negative rates and warns the UK economy will not recover to pre-pandemic levels until late 2021

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• Britain's central bank avoided 'last resort' negative interest rates and held its benchmark borrowing rate unchanged at a record low of 0.1% on Thursday.
• Policymakers said UK economic growth is unlikely to recover to pre-pandemic levels until late 2021, while unemployment could take even longer to decline.
• The Bank of England revised its full-year 2020 GDP forecast to -9.5% from a prior prediction of -14%.
• "Investors will take heart from the fact that the bank now expects the drop in GDP this year to be less than initially feared," said a director at investment platform EQi.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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The Bank of England said on Thursday that policymakers do not expect a swift economic rebound to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon, and held interest rates unchanged. 

Members of the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to maintain the bank rate at 0.1%, and held its target for asset purchases at £745 billion ($980 billion). 

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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