Interest rates are set by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which is tasked with keeping inflation at 2%. However, in its Quarterly Inflation Report published on Thursday the Bank raised its forecast for inflation this year to 2.7% from its February forecast of 2.4%. It said that this overshoot was "entirely" due to the impact of weak sterling and that raising interest rates would not be an effective way of tackling that inflation.

Instead of its usual nine members, the MPC only had eight members attending the May meeting, as the Bank is yet to replace Charlotte Hogg, its former deputy governor. She resigned in March after failing to disclose that her brother was a senior executive at Barclays. At the May meeting, Kristin Forbes was the only member to vote in favour of rise in interest rates. Other members were more cautious, with concerns over slower consumer spending and other trends.