Scottish Chambers of Commerce have welcomed today�s decision by the Bank of England�s Monetary Policy Committee to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5% for a further month.  Liz Cameron, Chief Executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said:

 �The danger of a premature rise in interest rates is clearly receding and the Bank of England are steering a sensible course by keeping rates as low as possible.  Inflation does remain stubbornly high but this will reflect January�s VAT rise for the remainder of 2011, whilst external factors continue to exert the most significant inflationary pressures.  Raising interest rates in the short term would not make much material difference to inflation but would run the risk of knocking the recovery off course.

 �As the economy normalises, so must interest rates, but we have not yet reached that point.

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