West Midland business leaders welcome the news that interest rates are remaining at 0.5 per cent. Michael Ward, president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group said: “With fuel duty eating into business profits, any rise would discourage business growth.
“We are urging the Bank of England to use its quantitative easing programme to buy corporate bonds rather than government bonds. Keeping it at £325 billion will benefit the economy but what would be more effective and helpful is if the Bank bought private sector assets, instead of focusing exclusively on gilts.”
Mike Ashton, spokesman for West Midlands Chambers of Commerce said: “Low interest rates have helped the UK’s struggling economy by making it cheaper for businesses to borrow money and by keeping down mortgage repayments and therefore keeping extra money in the consumers’ purse.”
