Ahead of today's meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC), few expected a further cut in Bank rate but the markets were keenly interested in what the Bank would say about its £75 billion programme of quantitative easing (QE). Bank rate was duly left at 0.5% - the first freeze since October - and will stay there for a while.

Meanwhile, what the Bank said on QE was reassuring enough. It said: "The Committee also voted to continue with the programme, announced on 5 March, of asset purchases totalling £75 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves. The Committee noted that since its previous meeting a total of just over £26 billion of asset purchases had been made and that it would take a further two months to complete that programme."