BoE maintains Bank Rate at 0.5%

The Committee also voted to maintain the stock of purchased assets financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.

The minutes of the meeting will be published on Wednesday 22 July.

In last month's meeting, the immediate policy decision remained 'finely balanced' between voting to hold or raise Bank Rate for two MPC members, however all members voted to keep interest rates unchanged in June.

The previous change in Bank Rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009.  A programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves was initiated on 5 March 2009. The previous change in the size of that programme was an increase of £50 billion to a total of £375 billion on 5 July 2012.

Jeremy Duncombe, Director, Legal & General Mortgage Club, commented:

“Interest rates have now been at historic lows for over six years and although activity in the housing market is picking up, a rise in rates is still someway off. However, the rates that banks offer to consumers are not just based on the Bank of England rate. In fact, these rates have actually changed a lot over the past six years.

“Consumers should not fall into the trap of thinking they can wait until the base rate rises before they look for a new mortgage deal. Banks will have priced in a rate rise before it happens, so those who wait for a rise in the base rate will find the best rates have gone when they start to look around. There are some competitive deals on offer now, so anyone who is close to the end of their deal or who is on their lender’s standard variable rate should act now before they miss their chance."

Barry Naisbitt, Chief Economist, Santander UK, added:

"The Monetary Policy Committee announcement that Bank Rate was again being held at 0.50% was not a surprise. In advance of this month’s MPC meeting it seemed unlikely that the economic news and data over the past month would have been strong enough to support a change in view for the majority of MPC members, although there had been some ‘hawkish’ comments from one member.

"The latest figures for economic activity showed an upward revision to growth for last year and for the first quarter and the monthly activity indicators clearly show that growth has continued since then. The inflation rate is now only just above 0% and the current very low inflation backdrop will have provided scope for the MPC to continue to hold rates at their current level, especially at a time of economic uncertainty with regard to the situation in Greece."