Bank of England dropped the benchmark UK interest rate to 1.5% easing by 50bp as expected. The Monetary Policy Committee noted that the sharp drop in the pound provided additional stimulus to the UK economy tempering the need for more drastic rate cuts at the present time. The Central Bank acknowledged the severity of the UK recession stating that business and consumer confidence have declines markedly while noting that output is likely to drop sharply in the first half of 2009.

The euro hit a three week low against the dollar in active trade today as the unwind of the EURGBP long positions weighed on the currency throughout early European trade. In a session essentially empty of any key economic data trading was dominated by technical factors as cross selling and continued dollar strength took the EURUSD below 1.3500 figure.