The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to keep the bank rate unchanged at 0.5%, as well as keeping the level of quantitative easing at £200 billion.

The Bank Rate has now been held at a record low of 0.50% for more than a year.

Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander UK, said last month’s Inflation Report dampened the prospects of an early change.

He added: “The MPC has been using its quantitative easing policy together with the historically low level of rates and is watching the new economic data very carefully to see whether it is meeting its expectation of the likely development of inflation and output.