Interest rates set to remain unchanged

The meeting of the Bank's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee will be the last before the election if, as is widely expected, the poll is called to take place on May 6.

All 64 economists who responded to a poll by Reuters news agency believed the central bank would leave interest rates at a record low 0.5 per cent; most do not expect rates to rise until the fourth quarter of this year at the earliest.

In February and March there was some speculation the Bank might chose to resume its the fiscal stimulus of its quantitative easing programme.

However, minutes of the Bank's March meeting contained a distinct change in tone, with no serious reference to reviving asset purchases and some concerns about inflation.

It is now just over a year since the Bank cut rates to 0.5 percent and began buying bonds with newly-created money to help kick-start growth.

Recent comments from Bank policymakers suggest it could remain in wait-and-see mode for some time.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the strength of the recovery and the impact of an impending Government spending squeeze, a growing number of economists believe monetary policy will not be tightened until 2011.