Interest rates remain on hold at 0.5%

Base rates have now been at this record low level since March 2009.

The central bank gave no indication on when it might raise the interest rate despite speculation it would refine its threshold for increasing it.

The Bank said in August it will not think about raising rates until unemployment falls to 7%. At the time it predicted the threshold would not be reached until 2016.

However, the unemployment rate has already fallen to 7.4%, the lowest rate since April 2009, and some experts predict it could reach 7% this year.

Jeremy Cook, chief economist at the currency broker, World First, said: "A lot of chatter has been had in recent weeks around a possible retargeting of the unemployment threshold from 7% down to 6.5%. The average unemployment rate over the past 20 years has been 6.6% and we expressed some surprise that the Bank had plumped for a figure above that level, when setting its guidance out in August.

"We could easily see the Bank doing this, especially if declines in unemployment remain at current rates. For my money the Bank will likely use similar language to that of the Federal Reserve last night that it "likely will be appropriate" to hold the main interest rate near zero "well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below the unemployment threshold".

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has made it clear that an unemployment rate of 7% will not automatically trigger a rise in interest rates.

Rather, the 7% mark represents the point at which the BoE will "reassess" its interest rate policy,

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• Topics
• Economics / Markets
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• interest rate
• Bank of England
• Mark Carney