The Bank of England base rate of interest for loans and savings has now been at its record low level of just 0.5 per cent for almost a full year now and has still not gone up, despite the consumer prices index (CPI) taking a sudden leap towards the end of last year.

Recent talk of increasing interest rates has caused a certain amount of worry amongst those people with home owner loans on standard variable rates and tracker rates, as this would lead to a rise in their monthly loan repayments and as a result of this, a few borrowers are now looking at a fixed rate loan, in order to tie in to low rates.

However, a recent survey amongst financial advisers has found that almost one third of them do not expect to see the cost of a loan increase for at least one more year.

The survey, which was conducted by AXA, Baring Asset Management and Cazenove Capital, has revealed that only 6 per cent of financial advisers expect the Bank of England Base Rate of interest to increase within the next three months, around one quarter thought it would take six months for rates to rise and 28 per cent have predicted no increase for around nine months.

Ten per cent of financial advisers even said that they did not expect to see the cost of a loan or savings rates increase for two years yet.

Whilst the thought of continued low monthly repayments is good news for those people with an outstanding home owner loan or personal loan, it not as encouraging for people with savings, many of whom are now seeing a minimal return from their money and are desperately looking around the market place to find a better home for their investments.