All 70 economists participated in a recently conducted Reuters poll said that they expect the Bank of England (BoE) to hold the policy rate unchanged at 5.25% at the February 1 policy meeting.

38 of those economists noted that they expect the BoE to lower the policy rate in the second quarter and the median forecast for the bank rate by end-June stood at 5%.

Market reaction

This headline failed to trigger a noticeable reaction in Pound Sterling's valuation. At the time of press, GBP/USD was trading modestly higher on the day at 1.2720.