The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has voted 9-0 to maintain the bank base rate at 0.75%.

The MPC also voted unanimously to maintain the stock of sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bond purchases at £10 billion.

The MPC also decided to maintain the stock of UK government bond purchases at £435 billion.

The MPC reiterated is view that the UK would see a gently rising path for the Bank Rate over coming years.

GDP is expected to grow by around 1.75 per year on average over the next few years but the bank has indicated that if GDP growth were to be higher rates could rise slightly quicker than expected.

The MPC says the UK economic outlook over the short term will depend “significantly” on the impact of EU withdrawal.

The MPC says, “the monetary policy response to Brexit, whatever form it takes, will not be automatic and could be in either direction

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The Bank of England has left interest rates on hold, surprising precisely no-one. A fragile UK economy, softening global demand, and the looming shadow of Brexit leaves little scope for the central bank to do anything more than sit on its hands for the time being.”

“Markets are now pricing in a rate rise in the middle of next year, though between now and then we should get greater clarity on the size and shape of Brexit, which makes monetary policy in the next 12 months unpredictable.”

James Lynch, fixed income investment manager, Kames Capital, said: “It could be argued that with inflation above target, wage pressures pushing higher, GDP to be above trend and with 4% unemployment rate any normal response would be for the Bank to raise interest rates now.

“However they are a cautious bunch are these Central Bankers and the decision for the UK to leave the EU by March 2019 is proving tricky for the MPC to do their future macro forecasts and of course the outlook for interest rates. This is for obvious reasons as the type of Brexit has not been agreed upon yet.”