Bank of England slashes interest rates by 25bps to lowest level in 18 months

First MPC meeting of the year

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has cut interest rates by a quarter point, from 4.75% to 4.5%.

Seven MPC members voted in favour of the interest rate cut, while two preferred a 50bps snip. The Bank argued that over the past two years there has been a "substantial progress on disinflation [...