As widely predicted, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has kept the bank base rate at 0.5%.

The base rate has been at this historic low since March of this year.

The MPC also voted to continue with its programme of asset purchases totalling £125 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.

The MPCexpects that the announced programme will take another month to complete.

The Committee will review the scale of the programme again at its August meeting, alongside its latest inflation projections.