In a widely expected move, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted unanimously to increase Bank Rate to 0.75%.

Interest rates are now at their highest level since February 2009 when they were cut from 1% to 0.5%. The Bank cut the base rate to 0.25% in August 2016 before raising it back to 0.5% in November 2017.

In its meeting, the MPC agreed that the economic dip in the first quarter was temporary, with momentum recovering in Q2. It also expects GDP to grow by around 1.75% per year on average which, “although modest by historical standards”, is slightly faster than the diminished rate of supply growth.

Additionally, CPI inflation was also pushed above its 2% target to 2.4% in June. The MPC therefore judged that the UK economy “currently has a very limited degree of slack.”

However the MPC says it “continues to recognise that the economic outlook could be influenced significantly by the response of households, businesses and financial markets to developments related to the process of EU withdrawal.”