Bank of England base rate held for fourth year

The Bank of England has voted to keep base rate on hold at 0.5% for the fourth straight year and maintain quantitative easing at £375bn. Capital Economics, global independent analysts, still think that base rate could come down. They were quoted in the Guardian explaining: "We doubt base rate will rise before the second half of 2015 at the earliest and think that some sort of rate cut is more likely than a hike within the next two years. "It's easy to forget that, when the rate first fell to 0.5%, it was widely expected to stay there for only a short while. Markets expected rates to rise in early 2010 and to have risen to more than 3% by now.” March 8, 2013