Stock market today: S&P 500 climbs as U.S.-China, regional bank worries cool
Investing.com - The Bank of England held its interest rates unchanged at its policy-setting meeting earlier Thursday, as widely expected, and continued to signal a cautious and gradual easing approach even as inflation remained elevated.
The U.K. central bank maintained its Bank Rate at 4%, after cutting from 4.25% in August, its fifth reduction in 12 months.
Seven members of the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee voted for interest rates to remain unchanged, with two policymakers pushing for another cut to prop up the economy after U.K. economic growth flatlined in July.
That said, data published on Wednesday showed U.K. inflation in August held at 3.8%, the highest in 19 months and almost double the BoE’s 2% target.
“Fundamentally, the Bank remains sceptical about the trajectory of inflation beyond this year, given headline inflation is set to remain above 3.5% into year-end,” said analysts at ING, in a note.
British government borrowing costs and inflation are both the highest in the Group of Seven advanced economies, and the BoE forecasts inflation will peak at 4% this month before slowly returning to target by mid-2027.
Governor Andrew Bailey said this month that there was now "considerably more doubt about exactly when and how quickly" the BoE could reduce rates further, but most economists still expect another rate cut in November or December, with a further cut in the first quarter of next year.
Investors are also looking for the Bank’s annual decision on its bond sales, known as quantitative tightening.
Every September, the Bank votes on how far it wants to reduce its government bond holdings over the following 12 months. For the past few years, this has been consistently set at £100 billion, done through a combination of active gilt sales and allowing bonds to mature without reinvestment.
A Reuters poll showed economists expected the MPC to slow the pace to a median £67.5 billion ($92.2 billion) - a bigger drop than the fall to £72 billion in the Bank of England’s own poll in August.