The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has once again help the Base Rate at 0.5% and maintained the current level of quantitative easing.

Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander, said: “The Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision to hold Bank Rate today was, once again, not a surprise. The decision to hold rates last month was unanimous and in advance of this month’s meeting it seemed unlikely that the economic news and data over the past month would have been strong enough to support a change in view for the majority of MPC members.”

“The latest indicators of economic activity have continued to show steady growth, with the PMI output indicators positive in January and February and the unemployment rate has now fallen to 5.7%. The effect of falling oil prices is being seen in CPI inflation, which was at a low of 0.3% in January and could fall further in the coming months.

“This current very low inflation backdrop should provide scope for the MPC to continue to hold rates at their current level.”