The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official bank rate at 0.5%.

The committee also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £200 billion.

The last time bank rate  was unchanged for so long was 1952-53, covering the period when the Queen came to the throne.

The rate was 4% from 11 March 1952 until falling to to 3.5% on 17 September 1953.

The last bank rate change was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009.

The rate needs to remain unchanged for three more months to beat the 1950s record.