The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has once again voted to maintain the official Bank Rate at 0.1%.
The vote was a unanimous one from its nine members.
Frances Haque, Santander UK chief economist, said: “The MPC’s decision to leave Bank Rate unchanged at 0.1% was expected given the fact that the MPC has continued to state that they will look through transitory rises in inflation.
“Although August saw the largest jump in inflation between any two months since records began, rising to 3.2%, the Bank had predicted that inflation would be around 3% at this point. This was largely due to the effects of falling prices that were seen, in part, as a result of falls in restaurant and café prices from the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
“As the MPC has discussed before, it will continue to keep a close watch on what happens in the job market and to wages, which have the potential to create more sustainable inflation and be of concern to the MPC members. If this were to arise then there remains the possibility of an earlier rise in Bank Rate.”
Overall, the MPC judged that uncertainty around the outlook for the labour market had increased. Key questions included how the economy would adjust to the closure of the furlough scheme at the end of September; the extent, impact and duration of any change in unemployment; as well as the degree and persistence of any difficulties in matching available jobs with workers.
