The Bank of England has cut interest rates by 0.25% to 5.25%. Many analysts expect further UK cuts this year, but say inflation fears will stop the UK cutting rates as drastically as they have in the US.

The Bank said in January that the risk of inflation had ‘worsened markedly’ and the most recent UK inflation data showed that national consumer price inflation remained at 2.1% for the third month in a row in December, but energy prices have increased substantially since then.