The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee held the base rate at 0.5 per cent today and kept the asset purchase programme at £375bn.
The rate was last changed from one per cent to 0.5 per cent in March 2009. This means rates have been consistently held at 0.5 per cent for three and half years.
Some £50bn was added to the asset purchase programme in July and this will take a further two months to complete before any more can be added. The committee said it would be considering the impact of the 'Funding for Lending' scheme, launched last month, before considering further increases.

Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander, said: "Attention will now turn to the incoming economic data to see if the economy is showing any signs of recovering from the 0.5 per cent fall in output in the second quarter.
"The MPC is likely to continue to watch the economic signs closely to decide whether it will be appropriate to provide a further policy boost by announcing more quantitative easing later this year or whether it should hold policy for a longer period."
This was the first meeting with new member Ian McCafferty who was taking over from Adam Posen who left after three years. Mr McCafferty is former chief economic adviser for the Confederation of British Industry.
Further details of the decision will be given in the minutes of the meeting, which will be published on 19 September.
The next meeting will be held on 3-4 October.