BoE votes to hold base rate at 0.5%

by Aaron Strutt

Jan 09 2015

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee has voted to maintain base rate at 0.5% for another month. 

With inflation set to fall below 1%, in part caused by low oil prices and concerns about the strength of the financial recovery, many economists don’t expect rates to rise for some time.

In the annual Financial Times survey, 85 of the economists who responded did not believe rates would rise before the summer. However, 25 thought rates should rise much sooner.

The Bank has kept rates on hold for nearly six years.

As pointed out by The Sunday Times, this is the longest time the Bank rate has been frozen since the Second World War, when it was maintained at 2% from October 1939 to November 1951.