The Bank of England has followed the US Federal Reserve in maintaining ultra-low interest rates amid upgraded forecasts for the UK economy. The Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to keep rates at 0.1% whilst maintaining the pace of its 2021 programme of creating money and buying government debt. The Bank said that UK 2021 growth is forecasted at 5% with the short-term outlook looking brighter buoyed by the Chancellor’s extension of COVID-19 support, a rapid vaccine rollout and Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. However it stressed that the outlook for the UK remains ‘unusually uncertain’.