The downturn in Europe is posing a risk to Britain’s economic recovery, which appears already to have begun to slow, the Bank of England has warned.
The minutes to this month’s rate setting meeting said there were signs in the UK “of a slight loss in momentum” and that “the pace of growth was beginning to ease”. Pessimism about the global economic outlook was blamed, drawing particular attention to the Eurozone.
Singling out Germany, where “growth appeared to have stalled”, the Bank warned that “further downside news in the euro area had increased the risks to the durability of the UK expansion in the medium term”.
The increasingly pessimistic outlook persuaded the majority of the Monetary Policy Committee to hold interest rates at their historic