Base rate hold is kept low
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has held the base rate at 0.5 per cent for the 12th consecutive month, choosing to freeze the rate, so homeowners on tracker deals should remain on cheap mortgage deals for at least another month.
The committee, at the regular March meeting, also chose to keep its £200 billion quantitative easing programme on hold after halting it in February.
Most economists had expected these moves, in light of the Bank’s attempts to help stimulate sustained economic recovery in the UK.
Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight, a company which specialises in economic and financial analysis, commented: “Any interest rate hikes are clearly off the agenda in at least the near term, and could very well be delayed until 2011.”
The most recent change in the interest rates was a 0.5 percentage point fall in March of 2009.