FT Alphaville " The BoE and China hit together again And lo, did the market move. From the BoE: The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to increase the size of its asset purchase programme, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, by £50 billion to a total of £375 billion... CPI inflation fell to 2.8% in May and is likely to edge down further in the near term. Commodity prices have fallen, which should help to moderate external price pressures. And pay growth remains subdued. Given the continuing drag from economic slack, that should ensure inflation continues to ease into the medium term.... The Committee expects the announced programme of asset purchases to take four months to complete. The scale of the programme will be kept under review. While what really shifted things was China timing its latest rate cut announcement to coincide with the BoE's release once again. From Reuters: China C.Bank says cuts benchmark lending rate by 31bps to 6 pct China C.Bank says cuts benchmark deposit rate by 25bps to 3 pct China's C.Banks says lowers the floor for lending rates to 70 pct of benchmark rates, from 80 pct previously The release is here (Chinese language warning). And google translated here (Via @chrisadamsmkts): The People's Bank of China decided to cut financial institutions RMB benchmark deposit and lending interest rates since July 6, 2012. One-year benchmark deposit rate cut of 0.25 percentage points, year benchmark lending interest rate cut by 0.31 percentage points; other deposit and lending interest rates and individual housing provident fund deposit and lending rates be adjusted accordingly. Since the same day, the lower limit of the floating range of lending rates of financial institutions was adjusted to 0.7 times the benchmark interest rate. Individual housing loans interest rate floating range should not be adjusted, financial institutions should continue to strictly enforce the differentiation of the housing credit policy, to continue to curb speculative investment buyers. End Schedule: Financial institutions RMB benchmark deposit and lending rates after adjustment This entry was posted by David Keohane on Thursday, July 5th, 2012 at 12:15 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with bank of england, china, rate cut.