Base rates will rise by August 2011

According to the poll, 30% of respondents said they thought the base rate would stay the same, while 69% thought it would rise with 38% predicting a rise to 1% and 28% predicting a rise to 1.5%. Just 3% thought it would be 2% or higher.

The results are very similar to those from July's poll, where 67% predicted a rise, again, with most predicting it would be 1% or 1.5% in a year's time.

"Back in July, most analysts were firmly of the view that the base rate would have to remain on hold for the foreseeable future, with Ernst and Young's ITEM forecast predicting no change until at least the end of 2013," said Nick Scarrett, head of investment and pensions at Fair Investment Company.

"At the time, the only senior economist to have predicted an earlier rise was former Bank of England deputy governor, Sir John Gieve, but now, it seems many more analysts agree that we will see sharp rises much earlier than originally predicted."

Alan Clarke, economist at BNP Paribas suggests when rates do start rising, they will do so at a "fairly chunky pace,", and predicts a rise to 2.5% by the end of 2012.

Peter Williams, executive director at the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, thinks modest rate rises need to start now: "We need to begin the march back to a sense of normality" he said, and urged the MPC to vote for a 0.25% rise on Thursday.

"The vast majority of analysts still do not see a rise for some time, and the Bank of England is almost certainly going to leave the base rate as it is on Thursday in an attempt to protect the economy's somewhat muted recovery from a deep recession," said Nick. "And although many economists are predicting rises earlier than originally thought, there is still no real suggestion that the rate will rise by this time next year."

He continued, "The majority of our respondents have predicted a rise, as they did last month, and although there may be something to take from this, I think it is more wishful thinking than a real prediction, as most of our respondents are over 50 and are going to be more affected by low savings rates than high borrowing rates.

"But even if the base rate does rise by half a per cent or so, there is no guarantee that savings rates will follow - the base rate has remained unchanged for 18 months but savings rates have still fallen.”