Britain's central bank had kept its short-term interest rates unchanged at a record-low 0.5 percent and the scale of its asset purchase program at 200 billion ponds (US$318 billion), the bank said Thursday.

The monetary policy committee of the Bank of England voted to maintain the official bank rate paid on commercial bank reserves and the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, the bank said in a statement.

Britain's economy recorded sluggish growth in the final quarter of 2009 after a substantial fall in output, and household spending appeared to have picked up a little, the bank said.

The easing in monetary policy, the lower level of sterling and the recovery in Britain's export markets would together stimulate domestic activity, which might gradually recover.

The bank cut its interest rates to 0.5 percent last March in an attempt to boost the recession-hit economy. The British economy started to recover in the last quarter of 2009 with a weak gain of 0.1 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2010)