The Bank of England has opted to keep the base rate at 0.5 per cent following the latest meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

This marks the fourth month in a row the interest rate has stood at this level and did not come as a surprise to many economists.

Commenting on the decision, Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol said: "The MPC’s decision today to leave Bank Rate unchanged for another month was really the only possible conclusion and the committee probably spent more time discussing the quantitative easing programme than whether to change bank rate."

The Bank has decided to continue with its quantitative easing programme with asset purchases totalling £125 billion being financed through central bank reserves.

Minutes from the MPC meeting are set to be published on July 22nd and the quantitative easing programme is expected to take another month to complete.

The next interest rate decision will be made on August 6th when the scale of the programme will also be assessed alongside the latest predictions for inflation.