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04.12.2003

Bank of England and ECB hold interest rates

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank both met today and both decided to leave interest rates unchanged.

The Bank of England's monetry policy committee left rates at 3.75 per cent, following last month's 0.25 per cent increase.
This is one of the first times that the bank has not followed a first increase with a consecutive one and would suggest that they may have been premature with the increase last month.

The European Central Bank left rates for the 12 Eurozone countries unchanged at 2 per cent despite commenting that: "there have been increasing signs that the region's stagnated economy is finally beginng to pick up".

Both moves were widely predicted.

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