Interest rates look set to stay low after defeat for Bank's Andrew Sentance

Bank of England hawk Andrew Sentance was again alone in voting for higher interest rates this month — raising hopes there will be no change for some time to come.

Minutes from the July meeting of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, published today, showed that Sentance voted for rates to rise from 0.5% to 0.75%.

Sentance argued that inflation was dangerously high, just as he did in June.

But he was again outvoted by the other seven members of the committee who said that the risk of weak economic growth outweighed the threat of higher inflation.

They warned that "growth would be weaker than previously expected" as a result of austerity measures outlined in the emergency Budget and a loss of momentum in the global recovery.