Rates hold steady in UK, Eurozone

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank each held interest rates steady on Thursday, sending the euro higher versus the US dollar even as the pound fell to a new all-time low versus the euro.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee held the interest rate at 5.5 percent while the ECB held rates a 4 percent, expected moves in both cases.

Next month, however, the Bank of England is expected to cut rates while comments from the ECB’s president made it clear that future rate hikes are not out of the question.

At nearly 1 p.m. in New York the pound traded at 75.62p to the euro.

The comments from the ECB’s president came on the same day as US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech that the Fed will cut interest rates again if necessary to avoid a recession caused by the current housing and credit crises.

In early afternoon trade in New York, the dollar traded at $1.4807 to the euro and at $1.9583 to the pound, while it took ¥109.1500 to buy a dollar.

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