ISA Rates

The Bank of England released a statement yesterday stating that the interest rate will remain unchanged at 0.5 per cent.

The record low rate of interest has remained unchanged since it was slashed to 0.5 per cent in March 2009 in a bid to stimulate the economy and get people spending.

The UK's fragile economic recovery meant that the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision was to be expected. The focus will be in February when the Bank of England analyses the UK's economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2009. The decision then, will be as to whether they will continue to foot billions in liquidity.

Chief economic adviser to the CBI, Ian McCafferty said that he wasn't surprised at the MPC's decision to freeze the interest rates, given that the UK economic recovery will be 'slow and drawn out' with predictions of 'sub-par growth' pushing through to 2011.

Many of the top economists have stipulated that the UK will be out of the 1.5 year economic downturn in the fourth quarter of last year, forecasting growth at 0.4 per cent.

However the figure has potential to be much higher as many of the top retailers have reported great sales figures in the last quarter such as J Sainsbury who reported like-for-like growth had increased to 4.2 per cent.