After five years of record low world interest rates, there are now two sides coming out who appear to totally disagree with each other. On the one side are the Bank of England and the associated politicians, who make statements that they will virtually guarantee low rates for years ahead, possibly permanently, as they are a political decision designed to direct the economy and reward whoever the leaders wanted to.

On the other side you have the economists who believe interest rates reflect the market, and by artificially fixing them against the natural rate they are just saving it up for later and they will have to go up sooner or later.

Of course they can't both be right, either governments fix rates totally at will and as a result can keep them wherever they like forever, or market forces will eventually catch up and if they left them alone there would be a disaster, making it impossible to leave them there.

I don't have that sort of knowledge but as observed to fix rates very effectively since 2009 it seems to me if a government can force rates down that long nothing can stop them, but surely the economists know better?

This forum is intended for trivia questions and everyday problems to which, we hope, a fairly simple factual answer can be given. I don't think it's really an appropriate place for discussions of economic or monetary theory.