The base rate of interest has been left unchanged, it has been announced.

In its meeting today, the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC) has decided to maintain interest rates at five per cent. This will be the third time the committee has decided not changed the rate this year and follows cuts of 0.25 per cent which were actioned in both April and February.

Resulting from the MPC's decision, it is probable that consumers do not find any increased pressures on their finances. And during the current economic climate, at least homeowners should find that their mortgage repayments do not increase. Additionally, people could also discover that their is no increased pressure in managing other monetary demands - such as personal loans, credit and store cards and utility bills.

Commenting on today's decision, Henk Potts, equity strategist for Barclays Stockbrokers, said: "The monetary policy committee is caught between a slow growth rock and a high inflation hard place. UK economic growth is clearly moderating; consensus forecasts are for growth of just 1.6 per cent this year compared to the three per cent expansion recorded in 2007. However, outside the housing market and survey data, there is little hard evidence of a marked slowdown in UK aggregate demand."

He also stated that he feels headline inflation is set to "remain high" for the rest of the year, while the consumer price index inflation is also likely to move up from the current rate of 2.4 per cent. He attributed the increase in the latter towards increasing utility prices and continuing devaluation of the pound. However, he stated that the Bank of England is set to carry out further reductions to the base rate of interest, with this likely to stand at 4.25 per cent by the end of 2008.

Michael Coogan, director general at the Council of Mortgage Lenders, stated that although the objective of the MPC, is to strike a balance between rising inflation and slowing economic growth when making its decision, I am disappointed that an opportunity to cut the base rate was missed. He went on to add that he expects the mortgage and housing markets to face challenges for the rest of the year, most homeowners seem to be "managing fine".

However, Mr Coogan also advised those consumers who are having problems managing their money or feel that they may be about to develop problems to get in touch with their finance company or a debt advisory service as soon as possible.

For those who have concerns about their ability to manage their money as the year progresses now might be an ideal time to take out a cheap loan. Taking this type of loan, will enable borrowers to supplement their spending effectively and help with making major purchases.

An increasing number of homeowners are looking for mortgage products which follow any changes to the base rate of interest according to research carried out by the CML last month. 35 per cent of consumers were shown to be taking out tracker rate mortgages in February this year, more than double the 14 per cent recorded during the same month in 2007.

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Mark Dawson writes for the the UK Loan Arrangers where you can compare cheap online loans and apply online for the best rate secured loans, and direct loans.