The Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.5% for the sixth month in a row and said that it will continue but not extend its programme of quantitative easing.

The current rate of 0.5% is the lowest in the Bank's history and is widely credited with helping the economy - even though not all financial institutions have passed the full rate on.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee last month increased the size of the quantitative easing program by £50bn to create up to £175bn on the UK's balance sheet.