The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has voted to keep UK interest rates on hold at 0.5%.

The Committee also voted to continue with its programme of asset purchases totalling £175 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.

Recent data, including recent house price reports from Halifax and Nationwide, has suggested that the UK has begun to climb out of recession.

The previous change in Bank Rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009.