Small companies are particularly affected by interest rate rises, according to a business expert.

Speaking ahead of the yesterday's decision by the Bank of England (BoE) to hold the base rate, the chief executive of the Forum of Private Business told BBC Radio Five Live's Wake Up To Money that small businesses could be negatively affected by frequent rises.

Nick Goulding said that smaller firms are generally less financially stable than their larger counterparts and they also rely heavily on banks to lend them money.

For these reasons, smaller enterprises can be more sensitive to the frequency of financial changes, he commented.

Mr Goulding explained: "The big issue really is volatility. If you can't predict what's happening and if it is yo-yoing up and down then that creates real problems.

"If you know what it's going to be and it's relatively stable then you can plan for it."

The BoE has raised the base rate three times since last summer, in August, November and January.