The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be meeting at the end of the week to determine if the standard base interest rate should remain unchanged for the 28^th consecutive month.  It was with the warnings in the beginning of the year that an interest rate increase was imminent that remortgages were in high demand from homeowners looking to grab a low rate before the increase.  However, recently with slow economic growth the warnings have eased, expectations of an interest rate hike are low, and remortgages have slowed.

Forecasts have been issued recently that there will likely not be an interest rate increase until next year.  While other experts believe as soon as there is evidence of economic growth that the first hike will occur.  Last week numbers in the construction and manufacturing sectors showed there had been very low levels of growth.  There was also minimal growth in the service sector according to the Office for National Statistics.  The British Retail Consortium revealed that shop price inflation has reached the highest level seen in over two years.  All of this information has led to little expectation of a change this week in the interest rate.

Howard Archer, Chief UK & European Economist for IHS Global Insight remarked concerning the MPC saying, “The dynamics and mood within the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee appears to have changed significantly, with a more dovish slant coming to the fore. This was because new member Ben Broadbent joined the "no change" interest rate camp, which was in marked contrast to his predecessor Andrew Sentence.”