Bank of England holds off QE boost

The Bank of England has decided to wait for more evidence of a fresh slowdown in the economy before creating billions of pounds of extra electronic money. Policymakers left interest rates at their record low of 0.5% and as expected made no changes to their £275bn programme of quantitative easing (QE). Economists had forecast the Bank would wait to expand QE until at least next month when it will have its newest forecasts for growth and inflation. Amid growing expectations the UK is slipping into a double-dip recession, policymakers are widely expected to inject at least £50bn extra into the economy in coming months. Recession fears were fanned on Thursday by fresh news suggesting retailers suffered a difficult Christmas and data showing a slump in industrial output . There are signs too that net trade is failing to pick up the slack of lacklustre domestic demand as the sovereign debt crisis continues to rattle the UK's key trading area, the eurozone.