LONDON — The Bank of England on Thursday opted to keep interest rates steady at its June meeting, confirming market expectations even after U.K. inflation hit its 2% target.Seven members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to hold, while two favored to cut, the same as during the bank's May meeting.
In a statement, the MPC noted inflation had reached the central bank's target and said indicators of "short-term inflation expectations" and wage growth had eased. It was "very difficult to gauge the evolution of labour market activity" because of uncertainty around estimates from the Office for National Statistics, the MPC added.
In a repeat of previous messaging that some analysts had thought it may drop, it again said monetary policy needs to "remain restrictive for sufficiently long to return inflation to the 2% target sustainably."headline price rises cooled to 2% in May, meeting the central bank's target ahead of the U.S. and the euro zone, despite the U.K. suffering a sharper spike inflation over the last two years.That's even as the U.S.