Bank of England ramps up bond-buying, cuts rates to near zero

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England promised 200 billion pounds of bond purchases and cut its key interest rate to 0.1% in a second emergency move in just over a week to try to mitigate the hit to Britain's economy from the coronavirus outbreak.As central banks scramble to fight off the threat of a global recession, all nine BoE interest-rate setters voted unanimously for the cut to the benchmark Bank Rate, which they slashed to 0.25% from 0.75% as recently as March 11.They also voted..