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The Bank of England has held interest rates at the 15-year high of 5.25%, disappointing those hoping for an early Christmas present of a rate cut. The central bank today announced that interest rates will remain unchanged at 5.25%. The monetary policy committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 6–3 to maintain the bank rate, with three members preferring to increase the bank rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 5.5%. The six members who voted to maintain the bank rate at 5.25% argued that it was too early to conclude that services price inflation and pay growth were on a firmly downward path. "Both of these metrics of inflation persistence remained higher than in other major advanced economies, possibly reflecting less favourable supply-side developments and stronger second-round effects in the United Kingdom. Second-round effects were likely to be slow to unwind and, with the labour market still tight, the extent to which wage and price-setting would take account of the downward path of CPI inflation was not clear," said the report. Those voting to maintain the base rate noted that risks to CPI inflation in the medium term remained "skewed to the upside including from events in the Middle East". Meanwhile, the three members who preferred an increase to 5.5% put forward that there was "evidence of more persistent inflationary pressures". This included the fact that wage growth although moderated remained at rates above those consistent with the inflation target of 2%.