By Jonathan Davies

Interest rates have officially been at 0.5% for six years, after the Bank of England announced its decision to leave the rate unchanged.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) first dropped interest rates to the record low of 0.5% in March 2009, in an attempt to boost the economy during the recession and credit crunch.

With economic growth strong during 2014, there have been calls for interest rates to be raised. But the Bank of England has persisted with the 0.5% rate and isn't showing signs of raising it any time soon.

Speculation over an increase started when the unemployment figure rate neared 7%. Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney said the MPC would consider raising interest rates once unemployment fell below that figure.

But as the rate continued to drop nearer and beyond the 7% mark, Mr Carney stressed that unemployment was one of a number of factors that would lead to a decision to increase rates.

On several occasions, the governor has pointed to the imbalance of the UK's economic recovery, claiming that it has been driven by consumer spending, rather than increased business investment and exports.

With inflation at record lows however, Mr Carney has even suggested that rates could be dropped to a fresh new-low.

Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said: "While the risks of an earlier rate rise have probably increased lately, we still think it most likely that the Bank will wait until February 2016, by which time inflation will be back above 1% and heading towards the 2% target."

Jeremy Cook, chief economist at the international payments company, World First, said: “Six years is a long time in central banking but it was six years ago today that the Bank of England cut interest rates to 0.5% - a record low since its creation in 1694."

He added: “The world has changed in those six years. Nobody owned an iPad, Facebook was still a private company and Wills and Kate weren’t married, let alone parents!

“We are coming to the end of this ultra-low interest rate experiment in the UK, although I believe there is the possibility that a year from today, rates will remain at 0.5%. Unemployment is falling healthily, the declines in inflation are temporary and soon to come to an end and growth is becoming increasingly resilient.

“Of all the things that we have seen in the past six years, the recovery of the UK economy should be the most celebrated.”