Interest rates remained unchanged this month after the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee held its monthly rate setting meeting.
The decision to keep the base rate at 0.5% had been widely predicted after Mervyn King, the Bank’s governor, suggested another cut was unlikely.
Following six cuts since last October, when interest rates were 5%, rates remain at an all-time low.
There was a mixed response from the small business community to the decision.
Alan Tomlinson, partner at licensed insolvency practitioners Tomlinsons said: "We speak to struggling businesses every day and for each one, without fail, the price of money is immaterial.
“It is the availability of money that counts, so today's decision to keep the Bank rate on hold is purely academic. What matters is credit - but credit, despite the best efforts of the Government, is still extremely difficult to access.
“Of course, even credit counts for nothing if people continue to retrench. For business, everything hinges on the consumer and the consumer has gone into hiding," he added.
Dr Peter Slowe, a former economic policy adviser to Tony Blair and managing director of Projects Abroad, which organises volunteering in developing countries, offered a more optimistic assessment.
He said: “There are already signs that low interest rates, quantitative easing, and other stimuli, are starting to get lenders lending again. This is what matters to entrepreneurs.
"In companies like Projects Abroad, we depend on people having thousands to spend - this economic corner-turning, when added to lower costs of mortgages and fuel, makes for a pretty good combination.”
The Bank also announced that it was likely to take another two months to reach its £75bn target for fiscal stimulus through quantitative easing. It has achieved £26bn of that total in its first month of buying government bonds, or gilts.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009