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The Bank of England has announced an emergency cut in interest rates to shore up the economy amid the coronavirus outbreak. Policymakers reduced rates from 0.75% to 0.25%, taking borrowing costs back down to the lowest level in history. The Bank said it would also free up billions of pounds of extra lending power to help banks support firms. It comes as the chancellor is expected to announce further measures to support growth and jobs in the Budget later.  Mark Carney, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England, said policymakers had seen a "sharp fall in trading conditions", including spending on non-essential goods.

"The Bank of England's role is to help UK businesses and households manage through an economic shock that could prove large and sharp, but should be temporary," he said. 

Carney stressed that the economic damage caused by the coronavirus remained unclear. However, he suggested that the UK economy could shrink in the coming months. He said early evidence from China suggested that the world's second largest economy was on course to contract in the first quarter. Other nations were experiencing a "similar shift", he said.

"I would emphasise the direction is clear, though the orders of magnitude are still to be determined."

While the Bank's last emergency rate cut was in October 2008, Mr Carney said the virus was unlikely to inflict the damage seen during the financial crisis.

"There is no reason for it to be as bad as 2008 if we act as we have, and if there is that targeted support," he said. 

The emergency rate cut comes as a sixth person died from the virus in the UK, which has a total of 382 cases.The latest person to die was a man in his early 80s who had underlying health conditions. Meanwhile, Manchester City's Premier League match against Arsenal on Wednesday has been postponed as "a precautionary measure" because of the outbreak//BBCnews