Falling mortgage rates will see savings "hammered" if they continue on a downward slope, claims one expert.

There is a possibility that mortgage rates have now fallen as low as they will, says a spokesman for Moneyfacts, with few lenders likely to slash rates further.

"Effectively the banks and building societies can’t afford to lend money at lower than they are doing at the moment," he comments.

Furthermore, the expert believes standard variable rate mortgages at less than five per cent are "reasonable", despite not being as low as some people would like.

Things are unlikely to improve any further for borrowers, the spokesman believes, mainly because interest rates cannot drop much lower. Instead, the focus will have to shift towards helping savers.

On March 5th 2009, the Bank of England cut the base rate by half a percentage point to 0.5 per cent. This is the lowest rate since the formation of the Bank of England in 1694.

Moneyfacts reported in March 2009 that only 12.1 per cent of lenders (11 out of 91) intended to pass on the latest interest rate cut to borrowers.