-Bank of England
Bank of England officials voted unanimously to maintain interest rates unchanged at a record low of 0.5% in April, with very low inflation being the main reason for keeping a steady stance on monetary policy. Yet, while the central bank expected consumer inflation to briefly slide into negative territory in the coming months, it saw a faster rebound of inflation once the effect of cheap oil and food drops out of CPI calculations towards the end of this year, and the effect of the Pound's appreciation dissipates faster than expected. The minutes showed that "the appreciation of sterling was feeding through more quickly into CPI than expected. That could mean less downward pressure on prices to come and a faster pick-up in inflation when the effects of recent falls in energy and food prices dropped out of the annual comparison." The central bank added that the UK domestic data had been broadly in line with its February forecasts, while the Euro zone appeared to be recovering more strongly than thought.
Governor Mark Carney and other policymakers have said they expect the next move by the Bank to be a rate hike. The minutes published on Wednesday also showed the nine members of the MPC all voted to keep the Bank's purchases of government bonds unchanged at 375 billion pounds.
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