In a pessimistic revision of earlier forecasts, the Bank of England has scaled back its growth forecast to almost zero percent for the remainder of 2012 from 0.8% in a report early this year. Culprits for the downbeat forecast include the spectre of the ongoing euro crisis and harsher austerity measures still to come.

However the bank said that it did not foresee interest rates rising above 0.5% until at least 2015.