GBPUSD stopped recovering and started a new decline after the British regulator decided to cut its benchmark rate.

The British Pound is retreating against the USD on Wednesday afternoon after the Bank of England cut the key rate. The current quote for the instrument is 1.2862.

So, the BoE’s rate was cut from 0.75% to 0.25%. This decision was made urgently during the unscheduled meeting. Considering how conservative the British regulator is and knowing that in most cases it prefers to watch but not act, it may be concluded that the current economic climate in the country requires a quick response.

The QE program remained at £435B. In fact, the program exceeded a long time ago, but the regulator keeps it open in case of an emergency.

The key reason for the rate cut is the coronavirus and its possible consequences. Probably, the Bank of England will comment on this later.

Later in the afternoon, the United Kingdom is scheduled to publish several macroeconomic reports, but investors are very likely to ignore them. However, January numbers on the Industrial Production and the GDP may turn out to be very interesting, as they are expected to recover and decrease respectively.