Interest rates likely to remain on hold

Policymakers delayed the meeting which should have taken place last week because of the General Election.

They are expected to keep the cost of borrowing at the record low of 0.5 per cent.

Efforts to boost the money supply by quantitative easing are also likely to stay at their 200bn level.

The Monetary Policy Committee will have much to consider – not least a hung Parliament's effect on the economy.

Another issue at the top of the committee's agenda will be the unexpected stubbornness of above-target inflation.

Policymakers were unnerved last month by a rise in the benchmark Consumer Prices Index in March, to 3.4 per cent from three per cent in February.