BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said in a speech, “I would caution against suggesting either that we are done with increasing Bank Rate, or that we will inevitably need to do more”.

“Some further increase in Bank Rate may turn out to be appropriate, but nothing is decided. The incoming data will add to the overall picture of the economy and the outlook for inflation, and that will inform our policy decisions.,” he added.

Regarding the economy, he said that data since February meeting, is that the economy is “evolving much as we expected it to”.

“Inflation has been slightly weaker, and activity and wages slightly stronger, though I would emphasise ‘slightly’ in both cases,” he said. “A further set of data will be coming in before our next monetary policy decision later this month.”

BoE MPC member Catherine Mann said, “to me, the data was still showing very robust (inflation) expectations and I thought it was important to dampen those expectations using a 50 basis point increase.”

“There was very little in the data that showed any diminution of expected wage increases, expected price increases or for that matter in financial markets … other than in gilts,” she added.

Mann was among the four policymakers who voted for a 50bps at last BoE meeting, which lost to a 5-4 vote.

BoE Governor Andrew Bailey supported Chancellor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s latest spending plans. He told BBC Radio, “it is absolutely sensible that public resources, resources of the state, are being used to cushion the huge impact of this absolutely unprecedented shock.” “We are smoothing the impact over a number of years to come, and that is the right thing to do,” he added.

Sunak admitted that borrowing and debt are at “record peacetime highs”. Also, the UK government is “on a path where that continues to be at a very elevated level, so that’s not a sustainable position,” “Once we get through this and we have more certainty about the economic outlook, we’ll need to look at how we can make sure we have a strong set of public finances,” he added.

BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill expressed growing confidence in the possibility of lowering interest rates and stated that the committee would start discussing it “over the next few meetings”.

“We’re growing more and more confident that we can begin to reduce the restriction that monetary policy is putting in the economy and start to cut interest rate,” Pill said at a Q&A session organized by the central bank yesterday.

Pill emphasized that the Bank is not quite ready to make these adjustments, stating, “We’re not quite there yet, and we need more evidence.”

Yet, he also mentioned, “In the absence of big new disturbances in the economy, we’re going to be thinking about moving interest rates over the next few meetings.”

This commentary came after the Bank’s decision to maintain the interest rate at 5.25%, a decision supported by an 8-2 vote. Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden joined Swati Dhingra, the usual dove, in voting for a rate cut, signaling a slight shift towards a more dovish stance within policy-setting committee.