London's professional investors and fund managers gave a guarded welcome to the Bank of England's plans to stimulate the economy through so-called quantitative easing, but warned of "unforeseen consequences" further down the road.

In an announcement this afternoon, the Bank of England cut the base UK interest rate to 0.5%, the lowest since the institution's foundation in 1694. It also unveiled plans to buy up to £75bn (€84bn) of corporate and government debt from investors during the next three months - thus injecting money into the economy, with the aim of stimulating spending and encouraging banks to lend more.