Bank of England holds interest rates despite Iran war inflation threat - as it happened

Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as three members of monetary policy committee vote to raise rates The Bank of England held bank rate steady at 3.75% on Thursday, but three of its nine rate-setting members said it should have tightened monetary policy to combat inflation from the Iran war. Yet despite what some economists described as a “hawkish hold”, market-implied probabilities suggest the chances of a rate hike at the next meeting in September have gone down. The implied probability of no change in September rose from 53.6% just before the meeting to 73% by mid-afternoon. Governor Andrew Bailey repeatedly told reporters at a press conference in London that the Bank was not preparing investors for a rate hike in the future, and that he was fairly comfortable that there was little evidence of inflationary pressures from oil prices feeding through to other goods and services in the economy. The conflict started by the US and Israel hangs over every economic question at the moment. Iran shut the strait of Hormuz in response to the bombing campaign, shutting in millions of barrels a day of oil production. Central bankers are trying to wrestle with