The Bank of England has launched a second round of quantitative easing  - "QEII" - in an attempt to prop up Britain's faltering economy against the euro zone debt crisis, pledging to buy £75 billion ($114.8 billion) of assets with new money in a dramatic move to stave off recession. Thursday's decision by the BoE expands its asset purchase program to a total of £275 billion ($424 billion).  It highlights the precarious state of Britain's economy as global growth slows, government spending cuts and tax hikes bite, and consumers face high inflation and slow wage rises. According to the bank, while inflation is still expected to rise above 5% over the next months, the recent deterioration of the outlook had made it more likely inflation would undershoot the 2% target over the medium term The move puts the BoE ahead of other central banks in responding to a darkening global economic outlook and renewed market turmoil.  Sterling weakened to its lowest in more than a year against the dollar, and long-dated gilt yields tumbled to record lows as markets braced for BoE asset purchases. Shock and Awe. "Once again the BoE has made use of its secret weapon -- shock and awe," said Alan Clarke, an economist at Scotia Capital.  "Pretty much everyone expected QE to restart at some point -- but it was only a minority view that it would start this soon, or be in excess of £50 billion.  In doing so the Bank has achieved the most bang for its buck." Some economists said the central bank may eventually expand the total of its purchases to as much as £500 billion pounds. The BoE has kept interest rates on hold at a record-low 0.5% since March 2009, unlike the European Central Bank which raised them twice this year.  The UK central bank bought 200bn pounds-worth of assets with from March 2009 to February 2010.   [Reuters, 10/6/11]