It’s been revealed that it was a very narrow split vote that led to Bank of England base rate being held yesterday.
Five members of the Bank’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to maintain rates at the level set in December.
Andrew Bailey, the governor, cast the deciding vote, while four favoured a further 0.25 percentage point cut to 3.5%.
The tightness of the vote and an apparent hardening of the Bank’s language suggests the next rate cut could come as soon as the next MPC meetings in mid-March or early April.
Analysts say markets have priced in two further rate cuts this year.
In its outlook for 2026 released alongside yesterday’s base rate hold, the Bank of England said it sees inflation reaching its 2% target as soon as April.
This is thanks to energy price-cutting initiatives announced in the last Budget and the effect of big price increases a year earlier falling out of the annual calculation.
It also reduced its 2026 inflation forecast from 2.8% to 2.1%.
But analysts caution that some of the lower inflation is down to weaker growth, with the current year GDP forecast reduced from 1.2% to 0.9%.
The GDP forecast for 2027 has also been cut from 1.6% to 1.5%, with 2028 now at 1.9%.
This article is taken from Landlord Today