Bank of England cuts interest rates to historical 0,25%

First intervention on rates in seven years by the Bank of England. The institute headed by Canadian Mark Carney announced that it has reduced the benchmark rate from 0.5% to 0.25% setting a new low for the cost of money.
The measure, already announced but then postponed surprise on July 14, is interpreted as a British economic stimulus in the background of the Brexit uncertainties and new alarm about a possible recession.

In addition, the Central Bank announced the reopening, to the tune of 60 billion pounds, of its quantitative easing program. The British QE increases from 375 to 435 billion pounds.

Signs, not encouraging, came from the index PMI, which measures the sentiment of the services sector, fell to a minimum of seven years to 47.4 points.

The BoE slashed estimates of GDP for 2017 and raised from 2.3% to 0.8% and for 2018 from 2.3% to 1.8% and confirmed its growth forecast for 2016 to 2%.