As widely predicted, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MP) today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate at 0.5%.

Rates have remained unchanged now for 28 months, with the previous change in Bank Rate being a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009.

The MPC also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves – so-called ‘quantitative easing’ – at £200 billion.

Grenville Turner, chief executive of Countrywide, said: “The MPC’s decision to keep base rates unchanged is unsurprising as concerns continue to grow about the lack of progress in the economic recovery.