Policymakers keep borrowing costs at 4% and warn of persistent weak growth before crucial budget
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The Bank of England has kept interest rates on hold at 4% as it warned unemployment was rising and growth remains weak as Rachel Reeves prepares for her make-or-break budget.
With less than three weeks before the chancellor’s highly anticipated tax and spending measures, the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted by a narrow five-four majority to keep borrowing costs unchanged for a second consecutive meeting.
Holding the casting vote in a finely balanced decision, Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s governor, said that he wanted to “wait and see” whether inflationary pressures in the British economy would continue to fade and if Reeves’s budget would have an impact.
