The Bank opted to hold interest rates once more at their 315-year low of 0.5 per cent as it weighs the impact of its expanded £125 billion drive to jump-start the economy with injections of newly created money.

The decision follows a frantic, eight-month scramble by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to shore up the economy since last October, when the global economic crisis escalated significantly.

Between last October and March, the Bank drastically cut interest rates and embarked on its aggressive moves to “print money” under a strategy of quantitative easing (QE), involving huge purchases of government and company bonds to pump extra cash through the economy.

This month’s noon “no change” verdict from the MPC follows its surprise move last month to boost the amount it plans to spend on asset purchases under its QE scheme by an extra £50 billion, and was widely predicted in the City.

It comes against a backdrop of continued uncertainty over the outlook, but growing optimism that, although the recession is continuing, the worst of the economy’s slump may be over.

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