The Bank of England unexpectedly cut the key interest rate by 50bps to 0.25%

The central bank also announced a raft of other measures to bolster Britain's economy against disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak, including a new funding scheme with additional incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises financed by the issuance of central bank reserves and more funding for banks that increase lending, specially to SMEs.

Policymakers also decided to maintain the stock of corporate bond purchases at £10 billion and the stock of UK government bond purchases at £435 billion.