The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to hold interest rates at 0.50%.

Meanwhile the level of quantitative easing has been maintained.

Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander UK, said: “With the focus very much on forward guidance in the approach to monetary policy, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was not expected to do anything other than hold Bank Rate again this month.

“We are now entering the sixth year of Bank Rate being held at its all-time low of 0.50%. The decision was made against a background of continued positive news on economic activity, with the survey indicators of economic activity continuing to show strong readings in February.

“Importantly, the unemployment rate has fallen much faster than the MPC expected back in August and, despite the tick up to 7.2% in December, has rapidly approached the 7% policy threshold, which has lead to a rethinking of forward guidance. At the same time, inflation has fallen back below 2%. This will give some comfort to the MPC in that it supports scope to hold rates at their current level for a while longer.”