article_snippet: Interest rates are unlikely to rise until the middle of next year as the Bank of England tries to stave off a deflationary spiral, economists said last night.
article_snippet: Delaying a rates rise would mean continued rock-bottom interest rates for mortgage borrowers, but more misery for savers.
article_snippet: Lower rates would encourage people to spend, rather than save, stimulating demand and pushing up prices.
article_snippet: Ben Brettell, senior economist at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘It appears interest rates will be stuck at 0.5 per cent for some time yet
article_snippet: ‘the Bank of England raises rates to curb inflation, but that is obviously not a problem at the moment, so families will keep families on hold.
article_snippet: ’ John Hawksworth, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the Bank of England was now ‘under no immediate pressure to raise interest rates’.