The Bank of England “provided a few surprises for markets” in its announcement today (4 February).

While there had been very little expectation of a change in policy, the BoE downgraded its growth outlook for the year as a whole.

GDP is expected to shrink by around 4 percent in the current first quarter, which will impact growth for the whole year, which the bank forecasts will be just 5 percent, compared with a previously predicted 7.25 percent.

Dean Turner, economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, noted one positive is that there was some clarity given on negative interest rates. The BoE held interest ...