The Bank of England voted to keep interest rates unchanged at 4.5 per cent on Thursday as the UK wrestles with stubborn inflation and sluggish growth, while “a lot of uncertainty” hangs across the global economy.
The central bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC), the nine-member panel that sets interest rates every six weeks, voted 8-1 in favour of leaving borrowing costs at 4.5 per cent, with only external member Swati Dhingra, a long-standing “dove”, voting for a quarter-point cut.
The hold was widely anticipated by markets, but the vote split was less divided than forecast.
The MPC said that the UK economy would expand by 0.25 per cent in the first three months of this year, up from the 0.1 per cent forecast at
