Economists are forecasting UK interest rates could remain at a record low for the rest of this year. The expected figure might be of 0.5% or even lesser. Meanwhile 0.5% is the lowest since the Bank of England's creation in 1694.

The news came up just after the meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. Official data indicates that the annual UK consumer prices index inflation jumped from 2.9% in December to 3.5% in January. This was well above the 2% target.

The Monetary Policy Committee members voted to keep the scale of the boost to UK money supply at £200bn, rather than extending it further. The result of the voting was nine-to-nil. Means it was a unanimous decision to hold the boost at £200billion for now and to keep the scale up. This was revealed by Minutes the February 3 and 4 meeting of MPC in yesterday's publication.

There was also a discussion over whether to extend the "quantitative easing" program further. The "quantitative easing" program involves the Bank of England boosting money supply by purchasing Government and corporate debt. Everybody expected that base rates would remain at a record low for some time to come.