The Bank of England base rate has been held at 0.5 per cent and the quantitative easing asset purchase programme is also unchanged at £275bn.

The base rate has been held at 0.5 per cent since March 2009.

The asset purchase programme, which was increased by £75bn in October 2010, is expected to be completed in early February.

Further details on the decisions made by the Monetary Policy Committee will be revealed in the minutes of the MPC meeting which are published on 25 January.

This will be reveal the voting split between members and whether there are any plans to increase QE in the future.

Analysts have forecast that QE could rise to as much as £500bn by the end of 2012 to try to boost the economy.

Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander, said: “With the end of the QE programme and the February Inflation Report coming up, the MPC is likely to want to see how the economy is developing before making any further changes.

“The very slow pace of growth over the past year and the recent weakening in activity indicators will be of concern to the MPC but it seems unlikely to call for immediate action.”