The Bank of England left interest rates steady today for the first time since September while it focuses on a 75 billion pound ($110 billion) asset-buying programme to get the economy out of recession.

The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee cut rates to a record low of 0.5 percent last month and indicated it was unlikely to go any lower.

That leaves quantitative easing (QE) -- buying assets with newly-created money -- as its main ammunition to stimulate demand, cap long-term borrowing costs and avert the threat of deflation.

When it announced its gilt-buying programme last month, Britain's central bank said it would take around three months to meet its 75 billion pound target.

Judging the success of the scheme will take considerably longer. Money supply and lending figures for March will not be published until May 1 and it may take many months for the measures to feed through to inflation.

Bank policymakers have indicated they have the right to increase or scale back the programme as required, but few expect any major changes at this early point.

All 65 economists polled by Reuters last week predicted UK interest rates would remain on hold at 0.5 percent this week and most did not expect any change to the QE target.

LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY

Britain's economy tipped into a deep recession in the second half of last year and is expected to contract by 3 percent in 2009, its worst performance since World War Two.

Some of February's lending figures have been encouraging, suggesting credit conditions may have eased slightly even before the QE programme began.

Britain's goods trade gap with countries outside the European Union narrowed much more than expected in February as exports rose and imports fell, in a sign sterling weakness may finally be having an impact.