Bank of England keeps key interest rate steady and avoids explicit signals that cuts are imminent

The Bank of England has kept its main interest rate unchanged at a 16-year high of 5.25% even though inflation continues to drop from multi-decade peaks. Thursday’s decision was widely anticipated in financial markets and comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve also left its key interest rate unchanged. Unlike the Fed, the Bank of England gave few explicit indications that it was getting ready to cut borrowing costs soon. Market expectations that lower interest rates are on the horizon got a boost Wednesday with news that U.K. inflation fell to a 2.5-year low of 3.4% in February. That was more than anticipated.