Bank of England expands asset purchasing program by 50 billion pounds

LONDON, May 7 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of England announced Thursday that it would expand its asset purchase program by 50 billion pounds to 125 billion pounds.

Meanwhile, the central bank left interest rates at a record low0.5 percent. So far, the central bank has bought about 54 billion pounds of assets, the majority of which were government bonds, and is on track to spend 75 billion by June.

"This indicates that the bank believes the British economy still needs support despite recent mounting signs that the rate of economic decline is moderating," said Howard Archer, chief United Kingdom and European economist from IHS Global Insight.

The central bank has cut interest rates by 4.5 percentage points since October last year in order to pull the British economy out of recession as soon as possible.

The central bank acknowledged in a statement that "the world economy remains in deep recession" but that "surveys at home and abroad show promising signs that the pace of decline has begun to moderate."