Factbox: BoE's key signals on bond-buying, inflation and rates

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England kept the size of its bond-buying programme unchanged and held its benchmark interest rate at a historic low of 0.1% on Thursday as it maintained its full support to help Britain's economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the BoE signalled how it intends to start reversing its stimulus in the future.

Following is a summary of the BoE's announcements:

BOND-BUYING: The Bank of England kept the size of its bond-buying programme unchanged.

The BoE said its Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-1 to keep its government bond purchase programme at 875 billion pounds ($1.22 trillion). Only Michael Saunders voted to scale back the programme.

FUTURE PLANS FOR BONDS:

"The MPC intends to begin to reduce the stock of purchased assets when Bank Rate has reached 0.5%, if appropriate given the economic circumstances. The MPC judges that the reduction in the stock of purchased assets should initially occur through ceasing the reinvestment of maturing assets, to allow the reduction to occur at a gradual and predictable pace," the Bank said.

"Reflecting its judgement that there are advantages to reducing the stock of purchased assets initially by ceasing reinvestments, the MPC envisages considering beginning the process of actively selling assets only once Bank Rate has risen to at least 1%, and depending on economic circumstances at the time. Any asset sales would be conducted in a predictable manner over a period of time so as not to disrupt the functioning of financial markets."

BANK RATE: The BoE held its benchmark interest rate at a historic low of 0.1%.

OUTLOOK FOR POLICY: "The Committee judges that, should the economy evolve broadly in line with the central projections in the August Monetary Policy Report, some modest tightening of monetary policy over the forecast period is likely to be necessary to be consistent with meeting the inflation target sustainably in the medium term," the Bank said.

INFLATION: "CPI inflation is projected to rise temporarily in the near term, to 4% in 2021 Q4, owing largely to developments in energy and other goods prices, before falling back to close to the 2% target," the Bank said.

"The Committee's central expectation is that current elevated global and domestic cost pressures will prove transitory."

"Some members of the Committee judge that, although considerable progress has been made in achieving the conditions of that guidance, the conditions are not yet met fully. The other members judge that the conditions of the guidance have been met fully, but note that the guidance made clear that these have only ever been necessary not sufficient conditions for any future tightening in monetary policy," the Bank said.

(Reporting by UK bureau; writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by William Schomberg)