Interest rates on hold amid 'uncertain' outlook

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The Bank of England has kept interest rates at 0.1%, citing a lack of clarity over the UK's future trade relationship with the EU and the path of the coronavirus pandemic as cause for concern.

The recent increase in the rate of Covid-19 cases could "weigh further on activity", the Bank said.

The economy has recovered much of the lost output since lockdown.

However, the outlook remained "unusually uncertain", the Bank said.

It also signalled that it had no intention of raising interest rates until "significant progress" had been made in getting inflation back to the Bank's 2% target. It is currently at a five-year low of 0.2%.

"We expect interest rates to be no higher than 0.1% for the next five years," said Andrew Wishart, UK economist at Capital Economics.