Nicoll Financial Solutions Limited

The base rate of interest will remain at 0.5 per cent for at least another month, meaning the measure has now spent a year at this record low. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announced the decision at noon yesterday, following its monthly meeting. The MPC last cut the base rate in March last year, when it was halved from 1% to 0.5%. There is currently some debate over when an increase will be implemented. Some analysts believe that a rise is probable later this year, while others have predicted a freeze at 0.5% until at least 2011. It was also announced that no more money would be injected into the economy through the Bank's programme of quantitative easing. The most recent change in the size of that programme was an increase of £25 billion to a total of £200 billion on 5 November 2009. Minutes of the meeting will be released on 19 March, while the next decision will be announced on 8 April. "With inflation hopefully peaking and house prices reining back, there is little evidence to support an increase to the interest rate. An extended period of low interest rates is now looking more and more likely, with an extension to quantitative easing a better bet than a withdrawal of the recent monetary stimulus," said Robert Sinclair, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries.