The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £200 billion.
The committee did not reveal any new quantitative easing measures.
The last change in bank rate was a reduction of from 1.0% to 0.5% on 5 March 2009.
Consensus from the market was that an interest rate rise would not occur until at least 2012.
Ben Thompson, managing director at Legal & General Mortgage Club, said: "Another month another easy decision. Our view remains that rates will stay unchanged for the remainder of this year and in all likelihood won't rise much anytime soon, as we expect inflation to fall back sharply next year, albeit remaining a little above the bank's 2% target.
“We recently commissioned a survey which highlighted that two in three consumers are worried that if they applied for a mortgage they would have insufficient equity or clean credit to enable them to borrow at the levels they require.
“For those that can afford to do so, there has never been a better time to overpay on a mortgage and reduce outstanding debt. For those that are able and willing to buy, it appears as though current cracking deals will be around for a while yet which for them is good news."
Grenville Turner, chief executive of Countrywide, the UK’s largest mortgage broker and property services group said: “The MPC’s decision to keep base rates unchanged is unsurprising as concerns continue to grow about the lack of progress in the economic recovery.
“We saw an increase in the number of sales agreed last month, however we are not seeing any significant signs of improvement in the volume of transactions, as consumer confidence continues to suffer further setbacks with the collapse of well known retailers.
“ Last month we saw a 5% increase in remortgage activity, this has been down to some very competitive rates being offered by lenders in both residential and buy-to-let sectors– some below 2%.
"These are positive signs for borrowers who want to remortgage whilst lenders are offering these competitive rates before rate rises become much more of a reality and lending rates begin to increase.”
But Ian McCafferty, CBI chief economic adviser, said: “Mixed messages from recent data leave the MPC in a difficult position. Inflation expectations are on the rise, raising questions about the bank’s anti-inflation credibility, but activity continues to be patchy, with one-off factors such as the disruption from Japan and the extra bank holiday clouding their assessment of the underlying strength of the economy.
“This fine balance will continue in coming months. But with inflation likely to rise to 5% by the autumn, and the economy still gradually recovering, a shift in policy should not be ruled out before the end of the year.”
