The Bank of England reduced the base rate to a historic minimum.

January 8, the Bank of England cut the base rate in Britain at 0.5 percentage points to six per cent per annum, said in an official press release of the bank. So the low rate fell for the first time in more than trehsotletnyuyu history of the Bank of England, said AFP.
The reason for lower rates has become a world financial crisis and a shortage of liquidity in the global economy, making many large states have already entered a phase of recession. Monetary authorities of Great Britain hopes that low rates will help pour more funds into production. At the same time, too much money in the economy could lead to higher inflation. However, this threat in the Bank of England has felt no such danger as the general economic downturn.
Previously, many world central also went on a record decline in rates. Thus, the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered the base rate to 0-0,25 per annum. And in the euro zone, it is two and a half per annum.
In some countries, which have also suffered from the financial crisis, the stakes are not only decreasing, but increasing. For example, the Central Bank of Russia in recent months has raised the refinancing rate twice in an attempt to curb inflation and capital outflows from the country.
Reducing the rate of expected participants in the market, but could still cause devaluation of the pound sterling to the main currencies in the world market.