The Bank of England shocked nobody on Thursday by keeping interest rates at their record low of 0.5 per cent for the 27th consecutive month. A combination of arch-hawk Andrew Sentance's departure in May and a raft of weaker economic data in recent weeks likely contributed to the Monetary Policy Committee's decision to maintain the status quo.

The UK's central bank continued to ignore the pressures of rising inflation, which was up at 4.5 per cent in April (the latest release) from 4 per cent in March.

But the market's reaction following the announcement was muted, as investors had largely priced in a hold on policy.

Last week, the Purchasing Managers' Indices for manufacturing, construction and services showed muted activity during April, which added to fears the UK's economic recovery has stalled.

UK GDP data for the final quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 demonstrated a flat performance from the country and early indicators in the second quarter have showed little improvement.

Earlier this week, a release from the British Retail Consortium pointed to a marked relapse in retail sales in May after April's bank holiday bonanza.

Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist for IHS Global Insight, says: 'We expect the Bank of England to hold fire on interest rates until at least November, and we believe there is an increasing likelihood the MPC will not act until 2012.'

The breakdown of the MPC's votes will not be available for another two weeks, but spectators will be particularly watchful of Spencer Dale and Martin Weale to see if either of them defected back to the dovish side of the committee.