By Daniel Hunter

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee have opted to once again maintain the interest rate at 0.5%, as well as refraining to inject any fresh stimulus into the economy.

In what was Sir Mervyn King's last meeting before he steps down as the Bank's governor there was no change to either the interest rate or quantitative easing

Most analysts do not expect any change in policy until the new Bank governor, Mark Carney, arrives in July.

The MPC has been split in recent months over whether to increase QE from its current level of £375bn.

Three of the nine MPC members - including Sir Mervyn - have voted for an extra £25bn of QE at recent meetings.

“The evidence of a budding recovery continued to build over the last month, so the MPC’s decision to hold off from further monetary stimulus was broadly expected," Stephen Gifford, CBI Director of Economics, said.

“Despite this week’s disappointing lending figures, conditions should continue to improve as the Funding for Lending Scheme gains traction, which will further support household and business spending.

“We still see the MPC holding fire on monetary policy until Governor Carney takes over in July.”

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