Bank of England Live: Interest rates set to be held; Stocks sink; Unemployment stuck

Mar 19, 2026 - 06:03

The Bank of England governor is expected to vote for interest rates to be held.

Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog.

At 12pm, the Bank of England will confirm whether interest rates have been held amid fears the UK economy could suffer from higher inflation due to the war in Iran.

Markets – and City AM’s own shadow monetary policy committee – are expecting the Bank to hold rates at 3.75 per cent.

The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee is expected to highlight their concerns around rising oil and gas prices, which could feed into spiralling inflation over the coming months.

Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, forecast the MPC will adopt a “dovish ‘wait-and-see’ approach” in their next meeting.

“We anticipate a less divided vote than in February,” he said.

“This shift, we think, will be driven by the change in perception of downside risks to inflation and a change in risk management considerations due to the energy price shock.”

Edward Allenby, senior UK economist for Oxford Economics, agreed, stating “the conflict in the Middle East has thrown a spanner in the works”.

We’ll be bringing you the latest on today’s market movers and the Bank’s rate decision.

But policymakers may also be alarmed by fresh job figures this morning showing the UK’s unemployment rate still being stuck at 5.2 per cent – a near five-year high.

Vacancies also fell on the month while wage growth eased by more than expected.

Here’s a few of our top stories from yesterday.