Base rate frozen at 0.5% yet again

8 February 2010

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has voted to keep the base rate at 0.5% and brought quantitative easing to a halt.

The Bank has used up its £200bn budget on buying up government bonds in an attempt to boost the supply of money in the economy. It has spent £200.24bn so far.

The base rate has now been held at 0.5% for 11 consecutive months

Alan Cleary, managing director of Exact, says: “Rates should be kept on hold indefinitely - you don’t take a plaster cast off a broken leg until you know it has healed.

“The lending market simply has not had enough time to recover to the point where it could withstand the impact of an interest rate rise.”