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The Bank of England (BoE) has held its main interest rate at 5.25% – a 16-year high. The decision came at its last meeting before the UK’s general election on 4 July.
The Bank’s governor, Andrew Baily, pointed to positive news that inflation had returned to its 2% target, but said it was too soon to cut rates.
“We need to be sure that inflation will stay low and that’s why we’ve decided to hold rates at 5.25% for now,” he said.
As previous energy price-falls drop out of annual inflation data, the BoE expected inflation to return to above target, and repeated a May forecast for inflation to be around 2.5% in the second half of this year.
On the same day, the Swiss Central Bank cut interest rates for a second time this year.
![Policy rates in the 10 most-traded currencies.](https://assets.weforum.org/editor/5bPT2MbJkOmNm3yUMEZvPnyt494f5ui8Hpyvi7u8LI4.png)
The latest in central banks’ interest rates.
–World Economic Forum