The minutes of the meeting will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 21 March.
The previous change in Bank Rate was an increase of 0.25 percentage points to 5.25% on 11 January 2007.
This decision to keep the rates was expected given recent mixed data. "In addition, turmoil in global equity and currency markets over the past week had made it less likely that the Bank's monetary policy committee would want to risk delivering a surprise hike to an already jittery City. The annual rate of inflation is currently at 2.7 per cent, above the government's 2 per cent target," writes Financial Times.
The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, chaired by Governor Mervyn King, held the Bank Rate at 5.25 percent today, as predicted by all except nine of the 67 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The remainder expected a quarter-point increase.
Posted March 8th, 2007 by Armen Hareyan
