THE Bank of England have been urged to keep interest rates low and have been assured: “Boring is good.”

Inflation has soared to 4.5% in recent months - more than double the Bank’s 2% target - driven higher by the rising cost of essential items such as food and fuel.

But the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to keep rates at 0.5% for the 28th month in a row, even though a hike could help to bring inflation down.

Graeme Leach at the IoD said: “People seem to be getting bored with the MPC repeatedly leaving interest rates unchanged. But boring is good, the last thing we need is the excitement of a rate rise. We think the boring interest rate story needs to last for quite some time.”

Mark Stephenson, North-east policy advisor at the NECC said: “The MPC remains in a difficult decision, yet despite the difficulty NECC believes it is making the correct call in avoiding heaping extra pressure on households and businesses at a time of enduring economic fragility.”

The Bank also held its quantitative easing programme at £200 billion.

MPC members have been concerned about the strength of the economic recovery and more signs of a slowdown have emerged since its last meeting a month ago.

Recent surveys have revealed that growth in the manufacturing and the services sectors have slowed since the first quarter of 2011. There has also been increasing evidence of a slowdown in consumer spending after retailers including homeware chain Habitat, department store TJ Hughes and fashion outlet Jane Norman collapsed into administration.

Borrowers are seeing the benefits of expectations that it will be some months before rates rise, with the average cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage falling recently to an all-time low of 4.31%, following a drop in swap rates, upon which the deals are partially based.

But the delay is unwelcome for savers, who will continue to suffer from low returns on their money at a time when high inflation is eroding the value of deposits.