ECB, BoE hold interest rates at record lows

The BoE said it would pump another 25 billion pounds (US$28 billion euros, 41 billion dollars) into Britain's recession-hit economy.

And the ECB also kept its two other benchmark rates, the marginal lending rate and the deposit rate, unchanged at 1.75 percent and 0.25 percent.

Any rate rises will have to wait as a strong euro, worsening labour market and potential credit squeeze continue to pressure a budding eurozone recovery, analysts say.

The decisions were widely expected after the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it would hold its own rock-bottom interest rates steady for “an extended period” and kept trillion-dollar stimulus measures in place to support a fragile recovery there.

In Europe, the ECB has provided unlimited loans to commercial banks in a bid to boost credit, and observers watched for signs of a change in this policy, tipped as an early “exit strategy” once the ECB decides to unwind exceptional measures taken amid the global financial crisis.

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