 The Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged at 5.25% in a surprise move just a day after data revealed inflation is slightly cooling. After raising interest rates 14 times in a row, the central bank's policy-makers voted to keep the rate the same in a razor-thin 5-4 vote today. This is the first time since November 2021 that borrowing costs have been paused. The pound dropped 0.7% against the dollar after the decision by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. 'There are increasing signs of some impact of tighter monetary policy on the labour market and on momentum in the real economy more generally,' the Bank said in a statement. 'The MPC will continue to monitor closely indications of persistent inflationary pressures and resilience in the economy as a whole, including the tightness of labour market conditions and the behaviour of wage growth and services price inflation.' Interest is what people pay for borrowing money as well as what banks pay people for saving money with them. The Bank of England's base interest rate (or as it calls it, the Bank Rate) shapes how much interest banks can charge people or pay on their savings. Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here. For more stories like this, check our news page. Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
The Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged at 5.25% – the first time in nearly two years that the cost of borrowing hasn’t been increased.
After raising interest rates 14 times in a row, the central bank’s policy-makers voted to keep the rate the same in a razor-thin 5-4 vote today.
This is the first time since November 2021 that borrowing costs have been kept steady, though the current rate remains the highest since early 2008.
The decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, which makes the decision independently of the government, came a day after data showed inflation unexpectedly cooled slightly in August.