Interest rates have been maintained at 5.25% following the monthly meeting by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee.
The last change in interest rates occurred on 11 January when the MPC unexpectedly decided to raise it by 0.25%, catching many in the industry unawares as a rise in the base rate was not expected so close to the previous increase in November 2006. The City was last month caught off-guard when it was revealed one member of the nine-strong committee wanted a cut in interest rates to 5%, while the remainder of the MPC wanted to keep rates steady. At the meeting in March, David Blanchflower had argued a cut was possible as there was considerable evidence of spare capacity in the labour mark...
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