Bank of England ‘will hold base rate’ this month

The Bank of England is expected to maintain the base rate at its current level of 0.5 per cent when its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets this week, a poll has suggested.

All of the nine economists, business delegates and financial experts surveyed by Adfero ahead of Thursday’s interest rate decision predicted that there will be no change from the MPC.

This would break the trend of the last six months, in which the base rate was lowered several times by the Bank, potentially helping many borrowers with their debt management.

Commenting on this week’s decision-making meeting, Simon Hayes from Barclays Capital said: “I think they are reluctant to cut rates any further.”

Howard Archer from IHS Global Insight agreed, forecasting that interest rates will remain at 0.5 per cent for the rest of the year.

And Michael Baxter, an economist at Defaqto, remarked: “I am not sure there is any real benefit in it being cut any further.”

By Jamie Price