Breaking News: No change for interest rates

INTEREST rates were today held at 0.5% by the Bank of England.

It is the 15th month in a row that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee has maintained the headline level of interest rates at their record historic low.

The MPC also decided against altering the £200bn it has so far spent on quantitative easing (QE), or printing money, to support the economy.

Many commentators believe interest rates will remain unaltered in the near future as the coalition government continues to set out its plans for economic recovery and prepares for next week’s Emergency Budget.

Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the decision by the MPC to hold interest rates at 0.5% for June.

Gary Lumby, president of Leeds Chamber of Commerce, said: “The MPC must put economic recovery at the heart of its decision making and resist pressure to increase interest rates to curb inflation, which we expect will drop off later in the year on the back of public expenditure cuts and the likely increase in unemployment that will follow.
 
“The threat from the euro zone and imminent fiscal squeeze puts great strain on our already fragile economy and the MPC must maintain low interest rates for a prolonged period, which must be supported with a credible budget by George Osborne later this month.”

Interest rates have been at a record low for more than year and the bank completed a £200bn quantitative easing program of purchasing assets to boost the money supply in January.