YEREVAN, February 7, /ARKA/. The Bank of England (BoE) has kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for the 47th consecutive month in February and announced no change to its asset purchase facility program, it said on Thursday. The BoE said it was maintaining the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, in a widely expected move. The bank also said it was to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at GBP375 billion.

Following the announcement, the pound held on to gains against the U.S. dollar, with GBP/USD adding 0.36% to trade at 1.5715.

In late January 2013 the UK's National Bureau of Statistics said  the gross domestic product (GDP) in the IV quarter of 2012 decreased by 0.3% compared to the III quarter of 2012. In annual terms, the UK GDP has not changed, even though the experts predicted an increase  of 0.2%.

Thus, in the IV quarter of 2012 UK economy took a step back into recession, from which it managed to exit in the III quarter. For three preceding quarters (I and II quarter of 2012 and IV quarter of 2011) Britain's economy was shrinking.

In December 2012 the rating agency Standard & Poor's (S & P) downgraded the sovereign long-term rating on the UK from "stable" to "negative." The outlook revision means that the agency may downgrade the country's rating in the next two years if its financial performance is below its current expectations.  -0-