Interest rates have remained at 0.5 per cent since March 2009.

The Monetary Policy Committee’s decision was in agreement with economists who had forecast rates would be unchanged and was widely anticipated throughout the industry.

The primary reason for this is consistently high inflation and weakening economic growth, as well as significant problems in the Eurozone.

The announcement follows the MPC meeting on 7-8 December.

It was also announced the current asset purchase programme would take another two months to fully complete, on track with the three-month prediction announced last month.

The decision to retain the current levels of asset purchase is unsurprising as minutes from the November meeting show the Committee feel no more is currently required.

However, it did say “a further expansion might well be warranted in due course.”

The Bank added £75bn to the asset purchase programme back in October.

Minutes of the meeting given further details into the decision will be published on 21 December.