Interest rates kept at 0.5%

The Bank of England left the UK economy to weave its own course back to normality today, leaving monetary policy unchanged.
As expected, the bank rate was kept at 0.5% for the 13th month running and the monetary policy committee left unaltered the £200bn it has so far spent on quantitative easing.
The last revision to output figures showed that the UK moved out of recession faster than originally thought in the fourth quarter of 2009, and that relieved any pressure on the Bank to act again to drag the economy out of recession.
'With the UK General Election set to take place on the 6 May 2010 a display of strict neutrality by the MPC was to be expected,' said Edward Menashy chief economist at Charles Stanley.
And recent survey data on various sectors has largely indicated the recovery is gathering steam. In fact, some analysts fear that the unprecedented period of low rates and cash injections might be overheating the economy.
The chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development today opined that UK interest rates might have to rise sooner than elsewhere, because of inflationary warnings signs.
Pier Carlo Padoan told the Daily Mail: 'In the UK case we see that inflation expectations built into financial indicators are going up a bit faster than we would expect and than in other countries.'
Inflation is a concern, but there's good reasons why rates will remain low. The OECD released forecasts yesterday estimating that Britain is on course to expand more than any other G7 nation, other than Canada, in the three months ending June.
Other economists believe there could still be bumps on the road to recovery, while the looming General Election may also upset markets and sterling.