Bank of England holds rate under new head Carney

The Bank of England held its main interest rate steady on Thursday and froze its stimulus at the first meeting headed by new governor, Canadian Mark Carney. "The BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5 percent," the bank said in a statement. It added that the amount of special stimulus measures would remain at £375 billion ($572 billion, 440 billion euros). "At its meeting today, the committee noted that the incoming data over the past couple of months had been broadly consistent with the central outlook for output growth and inflation," the BoE added. Although the decision was in line with expectations, the British central bank surprised markets by hinting at the reasons behind its latest monetary policy decisions. Under previous chief Mervyn King, markets had to wait two weeks for any kind of explanation of the reasons behind the decisions. The BoE added on Thursday that it would publish full minutes from this week's meeting on July 17.