The Bank of England will not raise interest rates again, a majority of economists think, according to a survey by Bloomberg.
The findings come ahead of UK inflation figures this week which are expected to show a fall back into single digits.
The latest CPI print will be released on Wednesday and the figures from the Office for National Statistics are expected to reveal that inflation has dipped back below 10% for the first time since August, having unexpectedly risen the previous month.
Such a fall would ramp up pressure on the Bank of England to halt its programme of 11 consecutive interest rate increases, climbing to 4.25% - the highest since 2008.
More than half of economists in a Bloomberg News survey now think Andrew Bailey and other members of the Monetary Policy Committee will refrain from raising interest rates again.
Broker Citi thinks May’s MPC decision is on a “knife-edge.”
It continues to see a pause as more likely but believes the risks remain skewed in a hawkish direction and reckons the inflation data will be definitive.
Citi predicts core CPI inflation to fall by 0.4 percentage points from 6.2% in February to 5.8% year-on-year and sees headline CPI inflation declining to around 9.7%-9.8%.
“For the MPC, we think the hawkish risks surrounding the labour market and PMI data are plausibly greater, with an uptick either in vacancies or wages plausibly sufficient to sow sufficient hawkish doubt,” the bank added.