Rates to stay at 0.5% until unemployment falls below 7%

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has said that they do not intend to raise Bank Rate from its current level of 0.5% at least until the Labour Force Survey headline measure of the unemployment rate has fallen to a threshold of 7%. Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, said: “A renewed recovery is now underway in the United Kingdom and it appears to be broadening. The recovery remains week by historical standards and there is still a significant margin of spare capacity in the economy. This is most clearly evident in the high rate of unemployment. Our aim is to help secure the recovery while ensuring the risk to price stability and financial stability are well contained.” According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK's official unemployment rate stands at 7.8%. August 9, 2013