European Central Bank and the Bank of England are preparing to offer more emergency support to the financial sector and the economy in the hope of softening the impact of the government debt crisis and a looming recession, AP reported. Analysts expect the Bank of England to say Thursday that it will inject another 50 billion pounds ($79 billion) of new money into an economy that shrank at the end of last year. Meeting the same day in Frankfurt, Germany, the European Central Bank is expected to trumpet the advantages of its second unlimited offering of cheap, three-year loans to be allotted to banks on Feb. 29. Its president, Mario Draghi, will also likely be asked at his press conference whether the bank will help lighten Greece's debt load by forgoing profits on 55 billion euro ($72 billion) in Greek bonds it owns. The ECB could do that by selling the bonds to the eurozone bailout fund for what it paid for them, and the fund could then write them down, lightening Athens' debt load. Neither the ECB nor the Bank of England is expected to change interest rates from their current record lows - at 1.0 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. -- SPA
