The Bank of England (the central bank) on Thursday kept interest rates unchanged at 5 percent , despite the significant 50 basis point cut by the Federal Reserve (the US central bank). The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee said in a statement that eight of its nine members voted in favor of the decision to keep interest rates steady based on the decline in the inflation rate and its stability last month at 2.2 percent. The committee stressed that it wants to ensure that ongoing inflationary pressures disappear so that price increases remain within the target range of 2 percent, but at the same time hinted at the possibility of reducing borrowing costs gradually over time. It is noteworthy that the Bank of England cut its main interest rate at the beginning of last August for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, as it supported a quarter percentage point reduction in lending rates to 5 percent. Source: Qatar News Agency