Covid-19 crisis: Britain pauses on rate, sees unemployment at 2.5 million

BoE says downturn less severe than feared, avoids 'last resort' negative rates

The Bank of England said Britain’s economy would probably take longer to get back to its pre-pandemic size than it previously thought, but it was still weighing up the risks of cutting interest rates below zero to jump-start growth.
 

As it announced unanimous votes by its policymakers to keep its key interest rate at just 0.1 per cent and make no changes to its huge bond-buying programme, the BoE said the economy would not recover its pre-pandemic size until the end of 2021.

In May, it had said it thought it might get back to its pre-crisis size during the second