Bank of England keeps rates on hold, watches for recovery rebound

London

THE Bank of England kept interest rates at a record low of 0.5 per cent on Thursday as it waited to see how quickly Britain's economy recovers from a surprisingly sharp slowdown earlier this year.

Investors do not expect the BoE to raise rates until 2016 - seven years after it cut them to steer Britain through the financial crisis - in large part because of the plunge in oil prices which took Britain's inflation rate below zero in April.