The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted unanimously to maintain Bank Rate at 0.75%.

The Committee’s May Inflation Report is now predicting that the rate will rise to around 1% by the end of the forecast period in 2022, lower than in the February Report.

CPI inflation was 1.9% in March and is expected to be slightly further below the MPC’s 2% target during the first half of the forecast period.

Royal London Asset Management senior economist Melanie Baker said: “The BoE again signalled that households should expect a rate rise, not rate cut, in the next year or so. UK activity data has been mixed and Brexit-affected; measures of underlying domestic inflationary pressure don’t paint a consistent picture.

"Alongside Brexit uncertainty, this gives them a good excuse to stay on hold for now. However, if they turn out to be right on the economy, the clear signal from the MPC today was that the policy interest rate will need to rise above 0.75%.”

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