The Bank of England has voted to maintain interest rates at 5.25 per cent, rather than opt for a 15th consecutive hike. Reports that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decision was on a knife edge this week were bang on: the MPC voted 5 – 4 to hold the rate, with four members voting to increase it by 0.25 percentage points.
The decision was down to a battle between data sets released this week; wage growth and the latest inflation figures. The Bank places a lot of weight on both sets when making its base rate decisions – but for this month’s meeting, they yielded conflicting results.
Wages, for the second month, marginally outpaced inflation (by 1 percentage point). This troubles the Bank, as it fears a secondary round of inflation driven by a ‘wage-price spiral’. But the latest inflation update was much more positive. Despite warnings that headline inflation might rise temporarily due to an increase in fuel prices, the headline rate was at 6.7
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