The minutes of the latest meeting revealed that all the members of the MPC decided to keep the rate at four per cent. This has come as a surprise to many industry commentators who thought that at least some committee members would have favoured a rate increase to try and slow consumer spending.
The MPC have now held the rates at four per cent since November, despite calls from the CBI that another quarter per cent cut is needed to help manufacturing climb out of recession.
Last year interest rates were cut seven times in a total drop of two per cent in a bif to stave off recession, but Eddie George, the governor of the Bank of England has warned that interest rates will not stay this low if spending levels continue.
In a recent interview with the BBC George warned: "Consumer demand will have to moderate. I think there is a good possibility that it will begin to moderate of its own accord."
He continued: "[When] I say moderate, I don't mean it falls off a cliff, but it slows down,"
The minutes of the latest meeting confirmed this sentiment, and the MPC felt that consumer spending would "slow naturally at broadly the same time that the world economy recovered".
However, the minues give little clue as to what will happen to interest rates in the near future, but the hawks and doves are unlikely to express such unity in the next couple of meetings.
