The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be announcing their decisions adopted from their February meeting.  The interest rate which is currently 0.5% is expected by economists to remain steady with no change voted on by the majority of the MPC members.  The steady rate will come as no surprise to many experts with forecasts from some expecting the rate to remain untouched till the end of 2014, but a new change of leadership could make the difference in such a forecast.

The question of whether the MPC will choose to add to the quantitative easing (QE) programme is less clear.  Many believe that while more QE will eventually occur that February’s meeting will not be the one in which members will agree to take action.

The meeting will draw Governor Sir Mervyn King closer to end of his term which will see him replaced in July by incoming Governor Mark Carney.  Carney will be coming to the Bank of England to serve as Governor from the Bank of Canada.  He will be facing an intense questioning session today in front of the Parliament's Treasury Select Committee.

The MPC is facing a weak recovery effort and inflation still remains above the target goal of 2.0%.  Many see a need for the new Governor Carney to take a hard stance once he takes office and some expect that there could be a further cut to the standard base rate.  There is also an expectation of further QE from the MPC in the last half of the year.

How the committee votes on the standard base interest rate or further QE will not be known until the February MPC minutes are released later in the month.