Bank of England Holds Rate at 3.75% for Fourth Consecutive Meeting

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 at its meeting ending 17 June 2026 to hold Bank Rate at 3.75%, with two members preferring a 0.25 percentage point rise to 4%. The decision — the fourth consecutive hold — came despite Governor Andrew Bailey's Reykjavik speech on 29 May signalling tolerance for above-target inflation, as the Committee balanced softer headline CPI (2.8%, unchanged since April) against the risk that volatile global energy prices, still elevated after the Iran conflict, could feed through to renewed inflationary pressure later in the year. The hold disappointed markets that had priced in a cut following Bailey's dovish signalling.