Interest rates held at record low

City economists had widely expected a ‘no change’ from the MPC, with some predicing that rates will not rise until this autumn Andrew Sentance and his fellow hawks have again failed to push through a rise in UK interest rates, with the Bank of England leaving the cost of borrowing unchanged again on Thursday. The Bank’s monetary policy committee voted to leave interest rates at the current record low of 0.5%, and also made no change to its £200bn quantitative easing programme. The decision means Sentance will end his stint on the MPC at the end of May without seeing the rate rise which he has consistently voted for since last June . Although inflation is double the official target of 2% , the latest economic data has suggested that the UK economy is too fragile to support a rate rise at this stage. The monthly Services PMI survey showed that growth in this dominant sector slowed sharply in April , echoing similar findings for manufacturing and construction – although all three sectors did register growth last month. City economists had widely expected a “no change” from the MPC, with some predicing that rates will not rise until this autumn. The minutes from today’s meeting will be released in two weeks time, showing how the MPC members voted. More details soon Interest rates Economics Bank of England Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.