The Bank of England looks set to hold interest rates steady this week for the first time since September, as the central bank continues its £75 billion asset-buying programme to get the economy out of recession.

The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee cut borrowing costs to a record low of 0.5% last month, marking the sixth straight month of rate reductions from a level of 5% before its October meeting.

At the same time it also said it would start quantitative easing - effectively printing money to buy assets such as gilts - in a bid to get the economy moving again, with Bank of England Governor Mervyn King strongly hinting there would be no more cuts.

"The official bank rate is about as low as it can go," said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec. "Moreover, the Bank of England is still in the midst of implementing the committee's decision last month to buy £75 billion of assets."

"No further monetary policy action looks to be on the cards for a while."

The nine members of the MPC will most likely be looking at the efficacy of the QE programme so far and trying to get a feel for whether recent data does indeed point to some easing in the rate of decline of the economy, which fell into recession last year.

The BoE has so far bought more than £20 billion ($29.8 billion) of assets, and if it continues at this pace it could use up the £75 billion by early June.

Policymakers are likely to be thinking about what assets they can buy besides gilts as the central bank has also been buying corporate bonds.

They will also be wondering whether the latest data does indeed point to the economy not deteriorating as fast as it was.

In particular, they may have been encouraged by the BoE's credit conditions survey which showed some improvement in lending conditions even in the period before the central bank started QE.

"Our view is that the MPC will not need to expand the size of operations beyond £75 billion in the absence of a fresh financial or economic shock," said Shaw.