Mubasher: The Bank of England (BOE) on Thursday decided to maintain its key interest rate at its current level, just one week before the UK’s 29 March departure date.

Chiming with market expectations, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) agreed unanimously on keeping the rate at 0.75%, with a 9-0 vote.

The MPC also voted unanimously to maintain the stock of government bond purchases, financed by the issuance of the central bank reserves, at GBP 435 billion ($575.18 billion).

This was supposed to be the final meeting before the Brexit which is slated for 29 March, but UK Prime Minister Theresa May requested a delay for the deadline.

This would leave the implementation of the policymakers’ plan for limited and gradual rate hikes over the next months, undecided.

“The economic outlook will continue to depend significantly on the nature and timing of the EU withdrawal,” the BOE said.

By 12:57 pm GMT, the GBP/USD pair fell 0.55% to $1.3125, while the EUR/GBP pair rose 0.32% to            GBP 0.8676.