The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will once again convene today for a meeting to discuss the rise in interest rates. It is expected that the rates will remain at the low level of 0.5% which is where it has been for the last six years. The vote is expected to mirror the vote of last month which was eight to one in favour of keeping rates at the current level. The one vote to increase the base rate was put forth by Ian McCafferty.

The slowdown in the global economy is mainly to blame for the vote to remain the same. Increased wage growth at home along with the continued recovery of the economy will be weighed against the slowdown in China along with the non-commitment by the US to increase their interest rates just yet.

Pressure to lift interest rates due to disappointing global manufacturing data will surely be felt by the MPC on Thursday. Also, growth forecasts for the UK economy have eased. During the past three months the average amount of growth overall was 0.7%. That figure now sits at an estimated 0.5% to 0.6%.

UK manufacturing has especially slowed as employment within the sector has fallen for the first time in 30 months, according to the CIPS/Markit purchasing managers’ index survey.

According to other global data, the US employment numbers slowed during the month of September as only 144,000 new jobs were added. This figure is in comparison to the average which has been gained so far this year which is an estimated 198,000 per month.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, commented on the latest figures, saying: ''There can be little - if any - doubt that the Bank of England will keep interest rates unchanged at 0.5% at the conclusion of the October MPC meeting on Thursday.''