Britain's central bank increased its already huge bond buying stimulus by a bigger than expected $195 billion.

Andres, the total size of its asset purchase program, toe $1.16 trillion.

That was more than expected by most economists in a Reuters poll, but the bank said the move would give it enough firepower to stretch its buying of government bonds through to the end of next year.

Forecasts for Britain's economy were also slashed in its quarterly outlook.

Previously, the Bowie had expected the recovery to be complete by the end of next year.

Now, the central bank says the outlook for the economy remains unusually uncertain.

It predicts Britain's economy will shrink by 2% during the fourth quarter of this year as England reenters locked down.

Britain's economy has been supported by a surge in debt fueled spending by the government.

The B.

O.

E has been buying up many of those bonds.

Rates remained on hold on Thursday as expected, and there was little mention of any plan to take them below zero.

There was confusion, though, over how the news about the expansion of QE had been reported early by The Sun newspaper.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said he would look into the circumstances surrounding an article published by The Sun late on Wednesday.