"Since the MPC has been signaling that the current policy stance is broadly appropriate, it appears that the economic climate would have to deteriorate to prompt a further extension of QE," said Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser at the CBI business group.
"A fourth year of interest rates at 0.5% looks highly probable and a fifth is far from impossible given the still difficult domestic and international conditions that the economy faces," said Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight.