UK Interest Rates Have Been Kept at 0.5%

The UK interest rates have been kept at a record low again by the Bank of England. The Bank also kept the size of the bond-buying stimulus programme unchanged at £375bn.

The decision by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) comes more than six years after the record low was introduced.
The half-dozen years of ultra-low interest rates have cut savings' returns, while mortgage borrowers have benefited from lower repayments.
Ultra-low inflation, which turned negative in April at -0.1%, has put on hold expectations about the Bank raising rates in 2015.
Last month, the Bank indicated in its quarterly inflation report that it was likely to raise the cost of borrowing in the middle of next year.
Meanwhile, recent ONS figures confirmed that UK gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 0.3% in the first quarter, which was its worst showing since the end of 2012.
The nine-strong MPC has voted unanimously to keep rates on hold in all its previous meetings so far this year.
Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "The Bank of England was always a nailed-on certainty to keep interest rates at 0.5%. Indeed, the odds currently strongly favour the Bank of England sitting tight on interest rates (and on the stock of quantitative easing) over the rest of 2015."
He added: "We expect the Bank of England to start edging interest ratesup in the first half of 2016.