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Show ENGLAND CUTS DISCOUNT RATE ! Large Reduction in Floating-Debt Floating-Debt of Government Is One Cause ( LONDON, Feb. 16. (Bv the Assodat-! : ed Pr$o The P.arfk of England today reouceo Its r:te or discount to four and one-half i'er cent. The reduction of the bank rate was I primarily made poaaibla by the recent j large reduction In tho government's floating debt and ourrencv circulation. wbicb contlbuted to the exceaa of fundi In the money market permitting the p In. lnt: .r treasury bills nt a lower rate and the suspension Of. the five per cent bond Issue. For a lone time the bank' minimum rate has been oi;t of proportion to the market rates The advance In N-w Vof exchange, assisted hy larter Investment of American funds here, removed ..ne o" the adverse conditions in" de financial situation. Discount rates have hen remarkably weak during the last few days and only a slight adjustment will be noeosjiir to meet the revised minimum rate. (NOTE The discount ate of the Bank of England has been five per cent since November 3. last, when It was reduced from the five and one-half per cent rnie established on tho preceding July 21 Today's action was forecast rn a London Lon-don dispatch Wednesday night, which. It was pointed out. that the treasury had suspended temporarily Its issue of five per cent treasury bonds. The highest irate a; reached in August 1914. after the outbreak of the world war. when It was :;ct at 10 per cent, which had only been equaled on two previous occasions, oc-casions, those of the panics of 1S57 and I861V Since then the rate has fluctu-ated, fluctu-ated, but the ficure set today is the lowest since the outbreak of the world j war. ) |