Bank of England holds interest rates

THE Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.5% and made no change to its £375bn quantitative easing programme.

The Bank has held rates at this level since March 2009 and has said it will not consider an increase until the unemployment rate falls below 7%.

It does not expect this to happen until 2016 but many analysts believe the Bank will have to act sooner, possibly in 2015, because the economy is showing signs of recovery.

The most recent unemployment figures showed the jobless rate dropped to 7.7% in the June to August period.