Last week concluded the next to the last monthly meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for the current year.  The November meeting concluded with no action taken against the standard base interest rate.  The current interest rate set by the MPC is at 0.5% and has gone unchanged now for 44 months.  This has not meant that borrowers have had consistently low interest rates offered by lenders.  Throughout the past few years lenders have increased and dropped their interest rates in a quick response to the current economic conditions. 

The latest interest rate offerings from lenders have reflected the competitive environment that now exists as lenders seek out borrowers for their offerings.  Mortgages and remortgages broke historic levels falling below 3% weeks ago and some still remain there.  However, most of these record low interest rates involve loans that require high deposits or equity levels.  Only recently have lenders begun to seek out those with the ability to meet 10% deposits or homeowners with lower equity levels.  This should bring better interest rate deals for those needing a remortgage or hoping to climb onto the property ladder.  The lower interest rates being offered are due to the government’s Funding for Lending which is offering funding to lenders at lower interest rates than can be found on the global lending market.

The MPC meeting also concluded with the end of the quantitative easing (QE) programme.  November marked the last possible month the MPC could approve more QE to stimulate the economy from the currently approved programme.