THE Bank of England has held UK base rates at a record low of 0.5% and maintained the scale of its quantitative easing programme at £375 billion at its latest monthly meeting.

Its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had been expected to vote for no change, ahead of a statement next Wednesday on whether it will provide guidance on future interest rates.

Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said that yesterday's MPC meeting "was always looking likely to be a non-event" ahead of the announcement on forward guidance next week.

She added: "Our best guess is the MPC will commit to keep official interest rates low until an unemployment threshold is breached."

Anticipating next week's announcement by the Bank of England on forward guidance, which will accompany its latest quarterly inflation report, John McNeill, fixed-income manager at Edinburgh-based investment house Kames Capital, said: "This is expected to outline a new regime for UK monetary policy and is likely to include forward guidance on future rate policy and may also include further credit- easing measures."

UK base rates have been at 0.5% since March 2009. QE is aimed at stimulating activity by boosting money supply through the purchase of Government and corporate bonds, funded through the issuance of central bank reserves.

The European Central Bank yesterday left benchmark interest rates in the eurozone at a record low of 0.5%. It affirmed they would remain there for some while to come and could yet fall further.