No move for base interest rate

The Bank of England has announced that the base interest rate in the UK is to be kept on hold once again, which means that this will be the eighteenth month in a row that the base rate will have been kept at the record low of just 0.5 percent. The announcement came after the August Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

The decision to keep the base rate at 0.5 percent, which is the lowest in the history of the Bank of England, has sparked speculation that the Monetary Policy Committee is not all that concerned about rising inflation, which at present is much higher than the government target of 2 percent but is expected to fall closer to its targets level over the course of the year.

The central bank also said that the quantitative easing programme was still on hold. The programme was started by the former Labour government, and so far £200 billion has been pumped into the economy through this scheme. The MPC has now said that whilst the scheme will be kept on hold for now there is still scope to use it again in the future should it be necessary.

In the meantime many industry groups have welcomed the decision for the bank base rate to be kept on hold, with officials stating that this could help to revive the economy. The British Chambers of Commerce said that the cuts that the coalition government had made to address the public deficit would impact on the economy, so keep the base rate on hold had been a necessity.

David Kern from the BCC said: “The MPC made the right decision. The tough deficit-reduction measures announced in the Budget, although necessary, will inevitably increase the threat of a UK economic setback. Given the precarious economic background, it is absolutely vital that the MPC maintains the current low level of interest rates until the second quarter of 2011 at the earliest.”

Tags: bank base rate, Monetary policy, interest rate, bank of england, Central bank