The Bank of England will make its next interest rate decision today. Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog.
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will today meet for its latest interest rate decision. Whilst the writing appears to be on the wall for a hawkish display, questions remain on how far the Bank will go.
Markets are expecting a hold, though not without some dissent. In last month’s decision, the Bank held rates at 3.75 per cent in a unanimous decision. Afterwards, short-term gilt yields, which reflect government borrowing costs, sharply rose as traders priced in up to three interest rate hikes in the next couple of years. Though governor Andrew Bailey was quick to warn some investors were “getting ahead of themselves”.
City analysts have warned that the multitude of impacts from the war in the Middle East, which has dragged on due to failed US-Iran peace talks, could pose an array of dilemmas for MPC members.
Inflation surged to 3.3 per cent in the latest release from the Office for National Statistics – that was a jump from three per cent in February. All rate-setters will provide justifications for their own votes in the minutes to the decision. The Bank will also publish a revised set of forecasts – the first monetary policy report since the war began – as well as guidance on scenarios that could denote the Bank’s thinking on the risk of inflation spiralling in the coming months.
We’ll be bringing you the latest in the lead up to the decision at 12pm and more from the City market.
Here’s a few of our top headlines for you this morning: Schroders backs Wayve and Elevenlabs with UK’s first venture capital fund for pensions; Grant Thornton snaps up Australian sister firm as part of global push; Astrazeneca ploughs £300m into UK in surprise U-turn; Labour hands police ‘long-overdue’ violent shoplifting powers; General counsel ‘evolving from traditional legal gatekeepers’, says KPMG’s legal arm.
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